JHK’s Three-Act Play, Big Slide
A log mansion in the Adirondack Mountains…
A big family on the run…
A nation in peril…
Visit the Big Slide Page to order, perform, or see sample scenes.

Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again. Here’s JHK’s holiday classic: A Christmas Orphan.

11-year-old Jeff Greenaway hears his mom and dad argue one night after an office Christmas party. He infers from their garbled squabble that he is an orphan, found in a willow basket on the welcome mat outside their New York apartment. Thinking now that his parents are imposters, he steals away to Grand Central Station and buys a train ticket to Drakesville, Vermont, where he intends to start life all over again.Print | Kindle | Kobo (Digital) | Barnes & Noble (Digital)

There’s a lot to be nervous about, even if you don’t subscribe to the undercooked Mayan apocalypse lore moving through the gut of the Internet like a Staphylococcus-infected tamale. The casual observer might say that nothing seemed to give on the world scene in 2011 despite the Fukushima meltdown, the Arab Spring uproars, the train wreck of European finance, the disappearing act at MF Global, and the assorted injuries done to the Kardashian brand by the giant walking dildo Kris Humphries.

I demur. On close examination, the industrial world underwent complete zombification in 2011. Its member states and their institutions are now lurching across the stage of history like so many walking dead. Whole European nations are dead, their citizens squirming around the ruined bones of failed speculative condo projects, housing estates, and luxury hotels like botfly larvae. The USA lies in complete moral ruin despite the exertions of ten thousand evangelical preachers in dusty back-road tilt-up chapels from Texas to Carolina, several new museums of Creation Science, and the shining example of former Senator Rick Santorum. Just look at how we behave, from the cloakrooms of Congress to the piercing parlors of West Hollywood to the 7-Elevens of suburban Maryland: a nation of thieves, racketeers, reality TV sluts, wannabe road warriors, light-fingered gangsta-boyz, and crybabies living in an anomie-drenched decrepitating demolition derby landscape of failure. When everybody is a zombie, whose brains are left to eat? Echo answers…. On to the predictions for 2012 then.

The biggest political shock awaiting us is the massive disruption of the major party nominating conventions next summer, when thousands of angry citizens descend on Tampa and Charlotte demanding a reality test. The parties will attempt to go about their ritual business, ignoring the mischief outside the convention centers, and both parties will make the mistake of siccing the cops on the protestors. The result will be a much bigger mess than the one I personally witnessed on the streets of Chicago, 1968, when the party hacks anointed the grinning sell-out Hubert Humphrey to run against Ole Debbil Nixie. Just before getting tear-gassed on Michigan Avenue that night, I saw some kid hoisting a sign that depicted the nominee with a Hitler mustache over the epithet: Mein Humph! It made my night, despite the subsequent retching in the gutter.

The two major parties are completely bankrupt zombie organizations and this election may be their last stand – if they even survive the conventions. Neither of them can come to grips with the reality-based issues of the day: epochal financial and economic contraction, peak energy (and many other resources), climate change, the absence of the rule of law in banking, and generational grievance – or, perhaps more to the point, the manifestations of these giant trends as presented in unemployment, debt slavery, foreclosure, bankruptcy, homelessness, hunger, and X-million family tragedies. Both parties can only promise the return to a bygone status quo that is largely mythical.

President Obama, the putative “progressive” – spokesman of the Ivy League, Silicon Valley, Lower Manhattan, and all the other precincts where “folks” imagine themselves to be advanced thinkers – can’t even wrap his mind around the simple fact that we will never be “energy independent” if we think that means running 260 million cars and trucks, no matter how many algae farms we pretend to invest in. Here is man who ought to know better and either doesn’t, or is lying about it. He has other failures to answer for, too. Why, following the Citizens United decision in the Supreme Court, did Mr. Obama not prompt his party to sponsor federal legislation (or a constitutional amendment) that would redefine a corporation as not identical in “personhood” to a human being? Why does he still employ an Attorney General who has not started one prosecution for financial misconduct amid a panorama of arrant swindling and fraud? (Ditto: heads of the SEC, CFTC, etc.) And why did he not object loudly to the provision in the latest defense appropriations bill that allows for the capricious arrests and indefinite detention of anyone in the USA on suspicion of “terrorism?” Does this graduate of Harvard Law remember what habeas corpus means?

A lot of voters projected on Mr. Obama some notion of supernatural brilliance – our Hollywood fantasies are rife with wishes to be saved, and therefore redeemed, by our former victims – but he turned out to have a pedestrian mind. Could he possibly believe we have “a hundred years of natural gas” in the ground? Or that we’re in a position to ramp up another cycle of industrial economic “growth?” Or that we can continue the web of cruel rackets that passes for medical care in this country? When the Democratic Party re-nominates Obama, it will be sealing its death warrant, and it will be on its way to the same cosmic vacuum where the memory of the Whigs lingers on.

Meanwhile, the Republicans labor to convert themselves into the party of corn-pone Nazism with all their unconcealed lust to push everybody around under the plastic eagle rubrics of “Freedom” and “Liberty.” Look at the dismal lineup of morons, hypocrites, and religious fanatics arrayed for the Iowa caucus: a doctor who is also a creationist!? A leveraged buyout artist! A grifter fresh from K Street! A lady Christian theocrat wholly owned by the “dominionist” New Apostolic Reformation cult! A George W. Bush imitator showing symptoms of early onset senility! The whole posse is preoccupied with things supernatural. And being so dedicated to things unreal, they’re the prime representatives of the suburban clusterfuck, who will do anything to keep that obsolete machine running, even if it means national suicide, because they lack the brains to understand where history is taking us and what the mandates of reality are shouting at us about the urgent need to reorganize American life. They are also the vassals of corporate despotism – where the Democrats are mere footservants. They masquerade as “job creators,” but they promote the off-shoring of every activity that corporate America can shed in its quest for ever-greater executive compensation. The lip-service they pay to “freedom” is belied by their intent to control everybody’s personal life, commoditize the public interest, and sell out their grandchildren’s future for a few extra rounds of golf.

I think this gang, too, will be sent packing by the mobs of 2012. I have a nagging intimation that some third party candidate will emerge. The two personalities I keep seeing in that role are Howard Dean and Michael Bloomberg. Both of them are imperfect, but both of them are clear-headed and action-oriented, and I have a feeling that both of them are stewing in the background over the spectacle of idiocy, inertia, and dithering they see at every political compass point. Maybe somebody else will crawl out of the woodwork. I’ve said before in the weekly blog that conditions could deteriorate so badly that a Pentagon general might have to step into national leadership just to keep the grocery stores supplied with basic rations – but that is an outcome in my personal asteroid belt of probabilities.

Whatever party ends up running things, and whomever fronts it, is going to be in for a helluva wild ride. The USA is diving into an economic depression that will make the 1930s look like a Busby Berkeley production number. Compressive contraction will have its way with us, whatever Ben Bernanke thinks. There will simply be less activity of the kinds we’re used to – Big Box shopping sprees, hamburger sales, theme park visits, house closings, you name it – than our hypertrophic system requires to keep its own destructive momentum going. Instead, the whole thing will just topple over, iner
t, like a 99-cent gyroscope giving into the forces of entropy. There will be a lot of bewildered, angry, dispossessed people from sea to shining sea. Not a few of them will “act out,” that is, start breaking things, stealing things, targeting easy prey, hurting bystanders, and even tangling with police. Personally, I don’t believe in the internment camp meme so popular among the doomer paranoiacs, but surely a lot of people will be cooling their heels in some slammer – while many other miscreants will just get away with crimes against persons and property.

The global banking system was on death-watch all through 2011. Somehow the various doctors in the central banks and finance ministries were able to muster enough accounting legerdemain to give the appearance of a system still showing a pulse. But in a compressive debt deflation, there are only so many accounting tricks you can pull off as money (and wealth) literally disappears down a cosmic worm-hole. In Europe, the process has moved from the margins toward the center. The people of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Belgium will have less income, fewer government services, lost wages and pensions, less comfort than they have had for a couple of generations. Meanwhile, France is drowning in bad paper and the German banks are choking on it. There is really only one plausible outcome and that is default. The reckoning of the bondholders is at hand. Everybody will get poorer simultaneously – and if not, there will be not just regime change but civil war and revolution. The fantasy of a fiscal union in Europe is impossible because it means two things: that Germany will have to issue orders to everybody else; and that Germany would have to pick up the tab for everybody else while telling them what to do. Both are intolerable and implausible. Let’s just think of the Euro experiment as an interesting side effect of the peak energy era… now drawing to a close.

These professional economists with their jabber about QEs and “financial repression” and bond-term “twists” and debt-to-GDP ratios are missing the point. The advanced industrial nations will not be re-jiggered onto any “growth” runway. Rather, we’re entering the rutted wagon-road of de-industrializing and un-advancing. What awaits us in a “time-out” from hyperbolic technological progress. Forget about Ray Kurzweil’s nanobot nirvana. That is not in the cards. Instead, wrap your mind around life in an economy organized around farming, with a much sparser distribution of big urban centers, and far fewer people overall. Don’t imagine for a moment that your grandchildren will be zinging across the landscape in electric cars sampling one theme park after another while “networking” with “friends” on cyborg social networks implanted in their brain jellies. Think of them grooming their mules in the summer twilight. Anyway, you get the picture: everything that the finance ministries and treasuries and central banks are affecting to do is mere shadow theater performed in support of wishful thinking.

The question, then, is what kind of hardship and disorder will attend our journey out of the industrial era into post-technological age we are entering. Will we just turn the world into a Michael Bay movie and blow everything up? Or will we make some graceful descent and retain what is really best about the human spirit?

2012 will be the year of internal strife in these “advanced” nations, of people fighting over the table scraps of modernity among their own, in their own backyards, a desperate sorting out of the remnants. I don’t think we’ll see fighting between the European nations until the internal conflicts are resolved and that will take a few years.

The hot-spots for 2012 are very likely to be in the Middle East. You already know that. What could be more obvious than the tinderbox character of that region? Islamic extremism is poised to take over governments (and armies) in Egypt, Syria, Libya, possibly Algeria, and probably Pakistan. Iran lost its mind decades ago and seems determined to dominate the region by means of a strategy that can only get it into trouble (and perhaps the whole world if it goes really badly). Saber-rattling is one thing; making an actual move something else. Block the Straits of Hormuz? Not if you don’t want Teheran to turn into an ashtray. That may happen anyway if Iran rattles a nuclear saber. Germany, France, Britain, and Italy, all struggling with terrible problems at home, would breathe a sigh of relief if the mullahs were chastened. The chatter around the Web about an Israeli preemptive attack never ceases. But it is a possibility.

Oh, and don’t forget Turkey. Formerly the “sick man” of Europe, Turkey has become strangely resurgent, prompting some recollections that the Ottoman Empire actually administered over much of the Middle East until 1914, and not with complete incompetence, either. They just sort of imploded from empire fatigue, which is not the worst way to go down, if history is taking you there anyway. But empires come back, too, and what passes for Turkey today is a polity that in one incarnation or another has been around since the ancient Greek days, and was, for quite a long while, Rome Release 2.0.

Don’t be surprised if some hostilities break out between Turkey and Iran, since a battleground named Iraq lies between them. Iraq is a basket-case despite an immense reserve of oil under its sands, and having had the US military babysit it for eight years. The last American combat units left Iraq this fall, but there are still plenty of US soldiers there, maintaining our garrisons and keeping an eye on things. The question is: can they control what the Kurds do in the north, and whatever meddling Iran engages in around the Basra oil region in the South? These American support troops remaining in Iraq could find themselves looking like a ham-and-cheese sandwich between a lot of crusty mischief north-and-south. The Turks have already had a dustup or two with Syria lately – Syria occupies a big wedge between Turkey, Iraq and the Mediterranean Sea – and Turkey will take a dim view of that nation falling into the hands of Islamic extremists if Assad gets booted.

All bets are off in Egypt. Anything can happen there.

The dangerous position of Israel vis-à-vis all these quarreling players is probably as bad as it has been in two generations. An attack by a neighbor or getting caught in a crossfire between neighbors would stimulate a lusty response, and perhaps World War Three. As if the world needed this added aggravation. It makes my kishkas ache just to think about it. Sometimes I wonder why the whole Israeli nation doesn’t just pack up and move to Nebraska.

2012 is the year that China proves to be a mortal nation and rolls over with a very bad case of the vapors. Their banking system is a sham. Their property bubble is a fiasco. Their government has no formal legitimacy and will install a new leadership group this year, while exports crash and mass factory layoffs happen. There will be a lot of pissed off people in China, and they may express themselves politically in ways that have seemed unthinkable for decades. The aura of social control looms large in China, but an aura is a light garment not recommended for stormy political weather. 2012 could be the year that China begins its journey into a “Balkanized” collection of smaller autonomous parts, which is the big fat trendline for all the nations of the world, including the USA.

It is hard to think about the bizarre case of India, a nation with one foot in the modern age and the other in a colorful hallucinatory dreamtime. Their climate-change related problems are doing heavy damage to the food supply. Their groundwater is almost gone. The troubles of the wobbling global econo
my will take a lot pep out of their burgeoning tech and manufacturing sectors. It wouldn’t be surprising if these travails prompted distracting hostilities with its failed-state neighbor, Pakistan. Pakistan, with its inexhaustible supply of Islamic maniacs could easily start a rumble with some crazy caper like the Mumbai hotel assault of two years ago, but this time India would answer with a heavy cudgel, perhaps even a nuclear sortie designed to neutralize Pakistan’s dangerous toys at a stroke. And that would be that. Like cleaning out an annoying neighborhood crack house. It’s not a very appetizing scenario, but what else can you do about failed states with nuclear bombs?

Turning to Japan….That sore beset kingdom is suffering all the blowback of modern times at once: the Godzilla syndrome up in Fukushima; a demographic collapse; an imminent bond crisis; the collapse of export market partners; and a long, agonizing death spiral of its banks. I stick by a prediction I tendered back in March, after the deadly tsunami: Japan will decisively opt for a return to pre-industrial civilization. Why not? The rest of the world will be dragged kicking and screaming to the same place. Let Japan get there first and enjoy the advantage of the early adapter – back to an economy of local, hand-made stuff, rigid social hierarchy, folkloric hijinks in whispering bamboo groves, silk robes, and frequent time outs for the tea ceremony.

Russia? The big bear might have just sat out another decade and enjoyed its remaining fossil fuel supply, but the temptation to project power is a demanding habit, so they make all sorts of noises about watching Iran’s back – though mutual hatred abounds – and generally rushing into the power vacuum occupied by a US with dwindling mojo. There were stirrings of political discontent just few weeks ago, after the rigged early rounds of national elections, and who knows where that will lead. Vlad Putin has held things together there impressively after the meltdown of the 1990s, but apparently the tranquil veneer is thin. Except for two big cities, the sprawling nation is broke and decrepitating, with little to offer the world but oil and gas – not an inconsiderable offering, but one with certain limits especially as they drain their oil fields for export cash. The rule of law is also pretty sketchy there. The government, as ever, is a kind of gangster affair, only this time one that allows some people to get really rich, not just connected. Their 70-year experiment with Marxian dogma has probably put them off ideology for a few centuries to come, which means less money spent on prisons for people with independent thoughts and more for call girls and home furnishings. I imagine that Putin will maintain his grip through the year. The Russians will appreciate relative order more when they see a few other countries devolve into internal conflict.

I don’t see much action around South America this year. Some Americans are already fleeing to Argentina. Perhaps they’ll enjoy it, but there is always the menace of property confiscation, and worse. Brazil will continue to appear vibrant while it grows more population, shoving it toward eventual ruin. They will see setbacks in the development of their deep-sea oil due to an international shortage of investment capital.

Mexico’s fortunes depend on its oil industry, Pemex, which faces remorseless depletion. Revenue from oil production and (dwindling) exports can’t hope to keep up with continuing population growth (and ever more poverty). These trends suggest a continued loss of control for the central government and more territorial fighting among the drug gangs and other criminal mafias. As long as all those loose heads roll on the south side of the Rio Grande the US will just tut-tut off to the side. But if the gangs get bold and start venturing cross border to make mischief we will make like Woodrow Wilson did and send the regular army down to spank them. It would be a satisfying diversion for that portion of the US demographic that enjoys Ultimate Fighting on TV, though it won’t get them their job back at the Pontiac plant.

The global oil picture is not so reassuring. The fragility of our supply is simply unnoticed by commuters enjoying Lady Gaga on their iPods. Meanwhile, our politicians retail fantasies of endless domestic reserves, which is total horse shit. Global exports are in remorseless decline, apart from geopolitical fissures and strains that could just paralyze allocation cold. If a hot war breaks out in the Middle East, you’ll see the American supermarket shelves empty in three days. Won’t that be fun. Note, too: the manias over shale oil and shale gas will reveal themselves as just more bubbles in a long cavalcade of bubbles, and both will begin to founder on a shortage of investment capital. The shale plays will prove to have been a national self-esteem-building program, not any part of an energy policy.

The abiding question as we turn the corner into the New Year is: how come Jon Corzine is still at large? (Not to mention Angelo Mozilo, plus the entire executive floor of Goldman Sachs, and about 5000 other assorted Wall Street grifters still on the loose.) There is plenty of dire talk that the collapse of MF Global, and the shenanigans around its demise involving the evaporation of segregated accounts, has gravely and permanently damaged the entire investment industry, but especially the commodities funds, who can no longer depend on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to honestly clear trades and regulate behavior. The whole affair, and the thundering silence from the oval office, makes Barack Obama seem not just inept but somehow complicit in the looting of America. As if he needs another mark of discredit in his record of consistent fumbling. There are signs that a lot of people who still have something resembling money invested in various funds will go to cash in the weeks ahead, including under-the-mattress style. The distrust and paranoia is palpable now, with the frenzies of Yuletide bygone for another year. After all, why trust banks, especially the TBTF monsters. Such a mass move could take the starch even out of highly manipulated equity markets.

Nemesis may have her day, though. Jamie Dimon might have just gone a swindle too far for the fates to ignore him another year. JP Morgan looks to be in a peck of trouble for its role in the confiscation of MF Global accounts, not to mention its hijinks in the precious metals markets. The impudence of these rascals! In a nation when all sorts of people are murdered every day for little more reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is it not a wonder that some poor swindled Grampa with nothing left to live for has not tossed a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Wall Street watering hole known to be frequented by banking poobahs? Perhaps this sort of action awaits us in 2012.

Longtime readers of this blog know how much I love predicting the Dow Jones Industrial Average to crash down to 4000 every year. I never disappoint – though I am often disappointed. In 2011, the SP index managed the delightful trick of finishing a fraction below its previous January kickoff. The stock markets have churned in range-bound purgatory for a decade while the price of a jar of pickles has multiplied four-fold. Applying the calculus, and given the pickle-DOW differential, I’d say my call was actually pretty good. In any case, this year I change the tune slightly: I predict the DJIA will go to 4000, with the catch that the number is only a way-station to 1000, which it will hit in 2014. We may be short of snow here in the Northeastern US – thanks to La Nina – yet not short of confidence that the mills of the Gods grind slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.

Finally, look for the publication of my next book round July 2012, a non-fiction work titled Too Much Mag
ic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation… from The Atlantic Monthly Press. In a week, I begin work on World Made By Hand 3.

Good luck to you in 2012, and report any suspicious characters adorned with ear-plugs, quetzel feathers, and carrying obsidian knives to your nearest office of Homeland Security.

About James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.

“A Pentagon general might have to step into national leadership.” Keep your eye on Gen. David Howell Petraeus. His new autobiography could be the opening shot of a stealth campaign run for the White House. The author of the counter-insurgency handbook is ready-made for these troubled times, once warmer weather appears and the pitchfork waving hordes of the dispossessed, the jobless, the homeless and the hungry take to the streets again, threatening the walled enclaves of the super-rich. By November people may be so fed-up with not eating that they turn to a strongman to take over, thus opening the door wide that Obama will have left the key in with his signing of the Homeland Battlefield bill, his GW Bush-inspired signing statement notwithstanding. (How did Bush get a third term?) In any case, watch closely the First World indicators that the US will continue to slip down the list of. Rather than do the hard work of remaking our country into a civic and civil place, the yearning masses for a quick fix may think a Generalissimo is the answer. The thought of the US as a banana republic with nukes should give at least a few people pause.

Continuing with One Solar Panel at a time for now, but dreaming of bailing to Dad’s sailboat… Although we have the most wonderful solar powered facility, if TSHTF with guns knives and hate instead of Peace Love and Truth, I think I’d prefer to be at sea…
The strait of hormuz and grocergy shelves empty in 3 days are the things that irk me most.
And despite being around the best of friends at 11:59pm, I just wasn’t enthusiastic about the final countdown this year… I was scared.
Cheers Clusterfuckers,
PUSH ON. DO GOOD. KEEP SMILING.

As always, Thanks for your predictions for the coming year.
You’ve covered a lot of territory, no doubt it’s a tough one to get your head around.
There are many who say when the economic situation gets this warped out globally the tensions of the world push us to world war. Debt deflation is another condition that we have to face and of course the whole shale oil thing is a sham. I mentioned yesterday that numerous earthquakes in Youngstown Oh. caused it’s owner to stop production while the situation is investigated.
Japan just suffered another earthquake as well.
Obama did nothing to counter the newly erected Jim Crow laws being drafted by individual states to demand photo ids and proof of identity in voting. How ironic is that?
I often feel sorry for those on the news and the talking heads who want to stand up for democratic principles, but find no ally in the sellout to Wall St., Obama who has through the Fed poured tens of $ Trillions internationally to the banksters to keep the bubblicious afloat.
Yesterday I watched Ron Paul on C-Span. Although I don’t agree with him in most areas, I have to admit he’s not a spin-meister. Which means I don’t feel as if I’m going to suffer high blood pressure when I listen to him. I can disagree without feeling like this guy’s a liar.
He claims that that there can be no third party in this country because the Dems and Reps make all the election laws and things have gotten even more controlled than when Ross Perot was running.
He also said both parties where the same in foreign policy–war mongering and spending huge money to private contractors to break this country. Yes, nothing like turning war into a boondoggle for private interests to make billions on tax-payer dollars and flattening the world for transnational corporations. Think it’s going to work over the long-haul—energy issues may be the key to the unravelling.
He said on Morning Joe a few months ago that anyone taking money form the govt. should be regulated! He pointed out the hypocrisy of our being able to talk with Russia and China but claiming we just have to go in with boots on the ground to countries that aren’t even nuclear weaponized–well obviously that’s why counties want the bomb. Although RP is an Ayn Rand kook, he does spell out certain truths and I commend him for his honesty.
I do think watching the Repugs is like watching the Theater of Cruelty revving up for their last act.
One more response to your post today is that in L.A. someone is setting fire to cars in the garages of homes, setting the homes ablaze. It will certainly be interesting to find out what motivates them.

There is so much here to chew on that I’ll confine myself to three points for right now, all having to do with the election.
First, the Republican candidates are a bunch of clowns. Rick Perry is so dumb, a zombie was walking down the street in Des Moines the other day, saw Governor Goodhair, and turned away to look elsewhere for brains. Newt Gingrich doesn’t even have the organization to get his name on the ballot in the state where he now lives, Virginia. Bachmann is exactly the kind of maniac that would promise cheap gas to keep suburbia alive. Ron Paul is stopped clock who is right twice a day, namely at 4:20. Rick Santorum is famous because his surname is a synonym for froth. Romney is a corporate robot who will do whatever his programmers tell him to do. Poor Huntsman had to sign on to climate denial in order to stay viable. Finally, when I tell people about Buddy Roemer, who has the closest thing to James’s “My Tea Party” platform, the response is “who?”
Second, while Mayor Bloomberg would be happy to play the role of third-party candidate, particularly on the Americans Elect ticket, Howard Dean will do no such thing. The last time we had a serious challenge to a sitting Democratic president was Kennedy vs. Carter in 1980. We don’t have a Kennedy or his equivalent in the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton doesn’t count. No Democrat with any serious hope of a career in the party will challenge Obama this year, including Dean. As for the Americans Elect ticket, that might be intended for Bloomberg, but watch Ron Paul’s supporters try to draft him instead and succeed. After all, libertarians rule internet debate the same way Communists ruled pamphleteering, by sheer persistence and volume.
Finally, as for demonstrations at the conventions, I’m sure they’ll happen, but if the Occupy movement is planning them, it isn’t happening yet. Instead, they’re Occupying whatever is happening now, such as the Rose Parade, where Occupy L.A. will be marching a giant Vampire Squid/Occupy Octopus down Colorado Boulevard at the end of the parade. Too bad I won’t be there to watch.
I blogged about the first and third points over at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News, and I’ll probably blog about Americans Elect sometime this year. I also wrote about how Tea Partiers are screwing up attempts at sustainable planning, including New Urbanism and improving train travel, the Tea Party mayor of Troy, Michigan, Detroit and other cities in the Midwest setting precipitation records, rising gas prices, Canada leaving the Kyoto Protocol, and the unintended consequences of population control. If you want the URL, see my response to Chomskyite. Too bad he has such a negative attitude, as I actually enjoy reading the real Chomsky.

Tour de force! Don’t hold anything back, somebody might accidentally get cheered up for a brief moment! And to think that there was an essay in the Plain Dealer’s op/ed pages yesterday which predicted in the energy realm that the USA has an 800 year supply of coal; nearly as long lasting reserves in natural gas; and even hundreds of years worth of petroleum out west. I think I’m betting on your version of reality, especially with reference to the algae aquaculture situation in which apparently there is an unlimited global supply of pond scum from whence presumably vast quantities of oil could be sucked out, provided we can invent the 300 mpg automobile which would justify $33 per gallon biodiesel henceforth. I don’t even want to think about all of this financial insanity. If we’re going to drink ourselves to death like most of the middle aged to elderly Russian gentlemen after the collaps of the Soviet Union then we need to start learning how to make our own hootch because whatever remains on the shelves at the package store will probably get poured into the tanks of all of those flex-fuel vehicles out there.

“Howard Dean and Michael Bloomberg. Both of them are imperfect, but both of them are clear-headed and action-oriented…”
Bloomberg? Oh yeah, there’s your antidote to corporate rapaciousness. Tribal loyalties aside, I don’t think he’s the answer to anything other than “whose the richest money mensch of them all?”

Don’t worry, we’ll try to stir up protests and riots in Russia to try to get Putin to leave office. Then we can invade Iran.
As for why the crooks at MF Global are walking around scot free? That’s because Obama is one of the wall street looters.
I think you are correct about the Kurdish problem in Iraq, and this year we will see the return of joint Iran-Turkish military actions to suppress the uprisings there. You may notice I said “return” as there have been a number of ventures already which got zero attention in the US media. The loss of the pro-western and secular party in Turkey is a result of the US coercing Turkey to “shut up and get to the back of the bus” too many times. Financing PKK and MEK (the 2 major Kurdish terrorist groups) to try to harass Iran caused a lot of blowback as PKK was using those weapons to murder, butcher and maim Turks instead.

“The impudence of these rascals! In a nation when all sorts of people are murdered every day for little more reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is it not a wonder that some poor swindled Grampa with nothing left to live for has not tossed a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Wall Street watering hole known to be frequented by banking poobahs? Perhaps this sort of action awaits us in 2012.” -JHK
‘Tis a wonderment… so far.
With all the coming reckonings, you can bet your sturdiest work-boots that somebody who actually has two brain cells to rub together and gets their ass thrown out onto the streets to starve is going to percolate an idea or two of revenge upon those who blithely engineered their destitution and desolation for a few extra shekels. We’ll see more and more of these “occurrences” from once-solid citizens who’ve been kicked to the curb. Will we hear it in the news? Who knows, but things do tend to “go viral” more often in these days of miracles and wonders.
Let us hope that Petraus (cain’t spell it, you know who I mean), is not our Dear Leader in-waiting. My son says he’s a real asshole with a Caesar complex; but seeing the perspicacity of the ‘Murkin Peeple recently, it’s quite possible for him to become widely adored and worshiped.
Thanks for your picks in the coming horses-of-the-apocalypse race of 2012, Mr. James.
Sounds to me like there’s fun to be had by All! Place yer bets, Ladies and Gents, place yer bets!

Without the likes of Bachman and her ilk the whole charade of legitimacy and power of the phrase “anti-semite” virtually disappears.
Speaking of legitimacy, the big city liberal establishments are about out of it. Doubt me then go read the comments at any outlet that allows them.
The religion of Political Correctness is rotting from the bottom up and as it goes so goes the welfare/warfare state.

Why is American politics so vapid and now about useless? The swing voter is the gentile white woman suburban voter and has been since 1992 and if you have a handle on their self-centered moral make up like Clinton and Rove had you will win elections.
Its all about “nice” if you are not “nice” that ain’t “nice” and white gentile suburban women will not vote for you because they have a need to be “nice.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is already at the near 6,000 point mark.
I got to that number by taking into account the +35% loss in value the US dollar has seen against the Euro, and the 27% Rate of Inflation the US has seen since the year 2000.
Add those two up, and you’re at a 6,000 point Dow.
To add insult to injury, if the DJIA had seen a year after year Compounded Rate of Return, of a mere 10% a year, from the day that Mister Herr Georgie Busch was first Sworn-In in January of 2001…
Then today the Dow Jones would be at a near 30,00 point level.
I charted that here:bit.ly/uAkuda
I explain all of this reasoning of mine here in what I wrote elsewhere on the 12th of December, 2011:

Epic!!
A plethora of classic quotes. The best: “What awaits us in a ‘time-out’ from hyperbolic technological progress. …[W]rap your mind around life in an economy organized around farming, with a much sparser distribution of big urban centers, and far fewer people overall. Don’t imagine for a moment that your grandchildren will be zinging across the landscape in electric cars sampling one theme park after another while “networking” with “friends” on cyborg social networks implanted in their brain jellies. Think of them grooming their mules in the summer twilight.”

“There’s a lot to be nervous about, even if you don’t subscribe to the undercooked Mayan apocalypse lore moving through the gut of the Internet like a Staphylococcus-infected tamale”.
To be sure. However far along the Mayan calendar curve we find ourselves, and whether you believe, as I tend to, that the Government and wealthy elites ‘know something’ and would never tell us the truth anyway; in fact actively lie to us through a clandestine campaign of disinformation, matters little for 2012. We don’t need no stinking Mayans, or planet Nibiru, or solar flares, or coronal mass ejections to create an ‘end of days’ scenario: We’re doing a fine job on our own, thank you very much. Perhaps, the Mayans….and many other bright ancient cultures…could somehow have looked ahead, seen us as we are in this land flowing with overpriced milk and honey and said to themselves “you have got to be shitting me”. Further, they may have said, “No point in continung with a calendar for 2013, these ‘folks’ are fucked!”
Anyway, may we all live in interesting times.
Looking forward to the new book, James.

Hi Jim and all the gang
Well, Jim I appreciate your posts as always, but I have some bones to pick with you my friend. 1) B. Obama is not incompetent, he has done exactly what he has been paid to do- protect the interests of the 1%. Nothing more, nothing les. Really Jim, despite his formidable skills at oration, his actions are crystal clear. His crowning achievement? The signing of the NDAA- codifying the new US police state and effectively opening the war with Iran. Not bad for a days work. I look for old B.O. to take a long vacation soon, perhaps long enough for the stench of his corruption to briefly clear from the halls of the not so shining house on the hill.
2) The average American is well aware of the current situation, they may not have all the gory details. But of course, all those hideous acts of malfeasance have been carefully buried at midnight under a new moon. The newest poll showing 5% approval rating for congress should be a large enough clue. People are aware something is seriously wrong in the world today. Particularly with “representative deomcracy”- after all Bernie Sanders said it very clearly-” Congress works very well for the 1%.” So enough with the rather pompous disdain for your fellow citizens, they may be all that is standing between you and starvation in the near future.
On another note, the situation with Iran is very critical indeed. The abyss yawns wide, waiting for the inhabitants of our poor abused planet. I deeply fear that the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz will explode into a conflagration that consumes the world. And then the roaches can get on with the business of populating the Earth in peace. Still hope does remain, despite the very valid critism of Ron Paul, he remains the only candidate to advocate peace. That is reason enough to support and nuture his candidacy, he actually provides a map towards peace. Something our Nobel Peace Prize winning, but corruptly odorous B.O. has aggressively shunned.
So welcome to the brand new 2012 all, the prospects are interesting to say the least.
loveday

“We don’t need no stinking Mayans, or planet Nibiru, or solar flares, or coronal mass ejections to create an ‘end of days’ scenario: We’re doing a fine job on our own, thank you very much. Perhaps, the Mayans….and many other bright ancient cultures…could somehow have looked ahead, seen us as we are in this land flowing with overpriced milk and honey and said to themselves “you have got to be shitting me”. Further, they may have said, “No point in continung with a calendar for 2013, these ‘folks’ are fucked!” ” -Dirk
Good one.
Call me “dark of humor” if you will, but I found this very funny!
Thanks for the puncture wound right down to the funny bone via “dirk”. ;o)

RON PAUL BELIEVES IN CREATIONISM?
You sure about that?
Ron Paul is the most intelligent one of the bunch, by a long shot. It’s hard to fathom he’d truly believe in creationism, at least in the literal sense as I understand the term.
Otherwise, great post, as always!

Whew,,,
Jim, you had me worried there for a moment, that is, till I got to the end of today’s post. Your re-prediction of DOW 4,000 has assured me that this rally has legs! I’m all in! Dow 4,000,nah, that not how the game works. The HFT-Skynet mechanisms don’t fuction that way. They’ll keep playing their game of financial hacky-sack between each other (and with your 401-K, of course).
As for me, a few minor adjustments to the portfolio seem in order. I’m moving 50% of my funds into the CME insured ‘Fickle-Pickle ETF’. Given last years performance of 400%, take it from me, this is a sure thing. Thanks for the “Insider tip”. The other 50%, I’m putting into precious metal stocks like Remington, S & W and Colt. Also, I’m thinking about going long on CCI, Federal, and Horaday to name a few.
Now it’s time to just kick-back, watch the portfolio grow and enjoy the show…this year’s gonna be a doozy!
Hey, anybody got a stock lead for a domestic maker of riot shields?
Happy 2012 everyone, don’t forget to duck & cover…

Jim, your thorough prognostications for 2012 are much appreciated by this reader. It’s impossible to predict the black swan events such as Fukushima in 2011 and the resulting implications they have. I’m sure all the negative trends (resource depletion, climate change, species extinction, economic contraction, etc.)will continue. At some point we will see a tipping point where the whole thing goes south rather rapidly as these trends cause a self reinforcing feedback loop. And that tipping point may well be caused by an as yet unforeseen black swan event.
One thing is for sure, we are closer to the SHTF by 12 months than we were last year.
Here’s hoping we all come out the other end of this year!!!

Regarding this summer’s conventions. I have a feeling the authorities will invoke the need for security and the anti-terrorism laws to ban protest anywhere near the convention sites. “Legal protesters” will have to use a “free speech zone”, i.e. some barbed wire enclosure 10 miles away in a cow pasture. You will be allowed to wave your signs and shout as loud as you like in the compound. Let no one say we don’t have free speech in Amerika.

chuckle…then shudder…then chuckle again, fuck it! zone, that is beautiful imagery- ‘the four horsemen’, indeed! JHK: that about a four-star power grab- they mean rescue- is more than a little scary to me, especially since i haven t been reading your screeds for long; the same thought occurred to me shortly after the hair-piece started making election cycle noises (THIS is what they re trying to select?! i don t believe it!) on a helpful note to the CF’dN at large, in the coming swirl, when antibiotics become (pick one:) scarce/expensive/ineffective, apple cider vinegar can be mixed 1/2 & 1/2 with hot water, then gargled to cure strep throat…trust me, it saved my life over 20 years ago; and ever since if i start to get a sore throat, i literally only have to think about that vinegar & it goes away…y all keep yer heads down and yer powder dry, and hope you got some blackeyed peas, you ll need em…and good luck!

Better pay a little more attention to South America and Mexico. Lots of action down there. There are the beginnings of massive popular resistance to the American financed and supported cartel system. People in these areas understand the way it works and they will eventually act. They possess a long history of revolution and resistance. Viva Zapata!
Also, James, like Yoda told Skywalker, “Israel, you must confront Israel.” It was barely mentioned and yet they are one of three major instruments of not only policy, but events in the Mideast. As long as they are absent in your analyses, your take will never mean much.

Ron Paul – not a creationist – and characterized as such to discredit him. RP believes such debates (science and religion) should not involve politicians and that this issue has become so “volatile because the federal government has gotten involved in public school curricula, though it has no authority to do so.”
From Ron Paul’s book, Liberty Defined,
“No one person has perfect knowledge as to man’s emergence on this earth. Yet almost everyone has a strong religious, scientific, or emotional opinion he or she considers gospel. The creationists frown on the evolutionists, and the evolutionists dismiss the creationists as kooky and unscientific. Lost in this struggle are those who look objectively at the scientific evidence for evolution without feeling any need to reject the notion of an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator. My personal view is that recognizing the validity of the evolutionary process does not support atheism nor should it diminish one’s view about God and the universe.
This is a debate about science and religion…and should not involve politicians at all.”
See libertydefined.org/issue/17
More at lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/18118.html

Staphylococcus-infected tamale.
I love it when you use food as a metaphor.
The Conventions. I don’t see how they are going to hold those cities together. The only way I see is we have a national insult committed by some “new” islamic faction against one of our symbols of freedom. Just before the conventions.

Creationism has no scientific evidence to back it up, but Ron Paul wants to let individual school boards decide to teach creationism. That is the logical fruit of libertarianism? … damn the kids’ education. Good luck to the American kids in competing with Chinese and Indian kids.
Ron Paul also claims that evangelical atheists are trying to ban prayer in public places, but Ron Paul is wrong about that also.
The only issue the atheists are concerned with is teacher-led prayer in the classroom. Kid should pray in private anyway. In fact, that is the way Jesus said to pray: in private, with your closet door closed.
Ron Paul is a Christian, and he is potentially dangerous to atheists and thinkers.
Fortunately, the reality is Paul has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming president. He is a kook magnet. I would like to see the debate though, if the Republicans would just select him.
🙂
SOURCE: Matthew 6:5-6
Jesus said: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

once again blah blah everything so morose and it~s all ending, i particularly like the ´prediction´about how we´ll be organized around farming and tending to our mules…what trype.
kunstler is forever stuck in his always-wrong predictions of famine and strife.
world moves forward kunstler, get with the program, you´re wretched predictions never pan out, because you´re a sad sack pessimist.
you have been left behind.
i reserve the right to be wrong
peace peaceniks
p.s. lifes great in brazil, roasted two pigs on the huge churrasqueira barbeque pit, plus giant slabs of beef, simply marvellous, and all topped off with icy kold beer, wonderful jokes and light accordion music.
everyone has work and enuf money, and life just gets better here…oh wait, doesn~t fit the doom meme, scratch evrythyng i said

Jim, this is your best writing ever.
I love that you are doubling (tripling? quadrupling?) down on the 4,000 DOW prediction.
This year I think you may be right. In fact, I think we have very little time before the whole house of cards collapses, maybe by Tuesday at 2:00 pm, but definitely in 2012. So many Mayans can’t be wrong.

asoka, i respect you man, but we shouldnt have jeezis sayng thee and thou. i love Yashua, but he hung on the corner with the pimps and hoes, not with the effetes so much, so surely he said `you` and ´your´etc.
let´s make the guy real, real language for real folks who´re in real need, not some limpwrysted
saddish being.
peace bro

“[In Brazil] everyone has work and enuf money, and life just gets better here…oh wait, doesn~t fit the doom meme, scratch evrythyng i said” -welles
No worries, I shall, because I don’t happen to live in Brazil, nor have I intentions of doing so. ;o)
Have fun! (I know you will, and you’ll be telling us allllll about it; thanks for that.)

My, how gleeful the author seems over his apocalyptic litany of woe – no saving grace in sight.
My prediction – Ron Paul will run as an independent and force a negotiated government as he denies either of the idiots a majority in the electoral college.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and A FOND FAREWELL
I Award my ‘PEAK BULLSHIT BUSTERS AWARD 2011’ to Eleuthero for this, In response to Absalom:
“You’re just a dumb liberal waster, another cookie-cutter blog doofus who has nothing better to do than write a thousand posts.
Just because you’re a newbie we “owe” you bupkus.”
Eleuthero, Now can you give as dose of the same to Alexandra, Wage and especially Asoka!
Wage vastly over rates her ability to ‘hurt a strangers feeling’ on this blog!
My resolution is to avoid ALL blogs this year.[Not sure I can!]
In the event anyone wants to communicate with me henceforth can go to:
FACEBOOK.COM
KEVIN JOSEPH
School: Santa Monica College
CHEERS AND A HAPPY 2012 TO THE PEAK OILERS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks, but i highly doubt i ll buying anything from ebay…and i figure antibiotics will be the least of my worries…i think i ll concentrate on the medicine i will need to innoculate others with: them thar lead pills…hope your “medicine cabinet” is full, suh, with plenty of “injectors” of yer own! happy fuckin’ new year to ya, for as long as it lasts

World Hegemony works in strange ways
The topic is Iran….Or is it?
After reading JHK’s predictions for 2012, I went over to listen to Clelente and Paul Craig Roberts. Interesting, hmmm. Both are saying that we are ginning up for a war with Iran, but Roberts sees the great global hegemon game in this more than Celente does. So is Iran the proxy for China?
He is suggesting that we are cornering China and her ability to get her hands on oil in Africa and Iran to hem her in. That is indeed an interesting notion, but why did we give China our industrial base for the sake of the transnational CEO’s if we are trying to undermine her acquisition of resources? Why do we want to outsource even military hardware to China?
This is a conundrum for anyone trying to puzzle out what our motivations are. On the one hand we outsource jobs so we can’t grow the economy, we are in fact trying to insource engineers from India instead of hiring our own graduates.
We are systematically de-industrializing and the horizontal support for manufacturing is disappearing. I worked again at a place who manufactures in China. Again they said it’s over for the US in that they could never manufacture here in the scale they need to, since that ability no longer exists. Much like the auto industry which Obama did save from the same fate where lots of feed-in businesses would have been destroyed too.
There will be no job CRE-A-TORS building a manufacturing infrastructure here again–but yeah, let’s give them a 0% tax rate since they’re so special.
I had to turn off MSNBC after hearing some poor soul say that Newt is great on Foreign policy—Oy my kishkas–whatever they I’m feline’ the hurt too!!
————————
ps. Newworld You really think our biggest problem is political correctness—really?

Bruce Krasting over @ Zero Hedge predicts Obama will dump Biden as VP and choose Billary as his running mate. Romney will be the GOP candidate, Paul will run as a 3rd party candidate and suck enough votes from Romney to give Obama the victory by default. Not that it matters anymore who the president of this facist oligarchy is, but that sounds very plausible to me.

Anyway, may we all live in interesting times.
Looking forward to the new book, James.
==================
We are blessed to live in interesting times.
Dirk, I love your naive optimism in looking forward to the new book!
When this sucker goes down, Atlantic publishing goes down with it.
Publishing requires a certain amount of order and rationality, an ability to depend upon a predictable future. This week’s post clearly shows we do not have a future.
What you can look forward to is chaos, marauding gangs looting the Atlantic publishing house. What you can look forward to is no electricity, no food, no fucking internet, and no book being published by Atlantic, no Kindle version available on Amazon. No UPS/FedEx trucks. No Amazon.
Don’t you get it? The jig is up. We are in the end times … and millions upon millions are going to die.
We cannot look forward to a publishing event this year. We are doomed … addicted actually … to this melodrama.

Once upon a time a domestically troubled Argentina sought to deflect its populace by rallying around the flag. It launched an attack on a “former super power” who was also experienceing domestic problems and led by an unpopular government. The “once great Britain” used this opportunity to rally around its unpopular government in face of this external threat and show the world that even once great powers can still have “teeth that bite”. The result was the “Falkland War”. Well as they say history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself but it often rhymes. This is my 2012 nightmare….only this time the central actors the U.S. and Iran are far more deadly and there is an impressive cast of supporting actors on the stage as well.

Jim, one of your predictions is already occurring and its only Jan. 2: domestic violence!
Someone is setting LA on fire.
Only thing we know about him: he’s white, between 25 & 35, and has a ponytail. Your typical CFNer?
Report all and any suspicious activity to BIG SIS, Washington, DC.
–WSP7

Jim,
I’ve also had my suspicion regarding Turkey’s re-emergence. It’s worth remembering that Turkey held together most of the Balkans for decades, once extended over most of the Middle East (including Iran, Iraq and Syria), and is in effect the Chicago of the Middle East – everyone who does business in Eurasia ultimately goes through there. In a Peak Oil scenario, this could mean big revenue for the country even as the oil producers are declining.
The signing statement that Obama made with respect to the NDAA was illuminating – it tends not to paint Obama in the light of power-hungry dictator but rather a president trying to turn what had been a truly bad bill into a somewhat less bad bill. Of course, even with a more generous interpretation, what emerges is the fact that it has effectively codified into law what had been an ambiguous concept before, and what is worrisome is that as written the language of the bill itself could still be used by someone with far darker intentions.
Despite actually having a fairly impressive catalog of legislative victories, Obama will go down in history as a weak president, not as bad as George Bush, but one who came to the White House as a conciliator at a time the nation needed a pugilist. He is a centralist, one heavily influenced by the Chicago Economic school, and his actions are very much those of a leader attempting desperately to restore the status quo, even when inertia is now clearly in the direction of its destruction.
Charlotte will likely be more entertaining than the Republican nominating convention, especially as the losers in the early Republican primaries will likely regroup and try the third party route. My sense is that they are less interested in being President than in becoming President (cf. Sarah Palin). I would not rule out a Democratic challenger emerging, either – Progressives are no happier with Obama than independents, and a significant portion of Obama’s “base” is now marching in the streets (or at least camping out in the parks), as angry with him as they were with Bush.
The stock market is irrelevant. There is no volume on the floor at this point, just daily ramp-ups as algos chase algos at 3:30pm EST. B of A stock fell below $5, and plunge protection team came in with an epic save that probably cost the taxpayers billions, but it pushed the price back up. In the background, B of A is quietly reorganizing into a good bank and a bad bank, so that some time in early spring, B of A will “fail”, and in its shadows a new “good” bank will spring up, with healthy books and dividends, even as millions of depositors get royally screwed by the collapse of the bad bank (of course, the FDIC will be right there with its $250,000 insured guarantee … right?). I suspect that since GM finance is now Ally, the new bank will be called McBeal.
It should be a fun year. Looking forward to reading your new book.

Yeah, it would seem that anyone with two brain cells to rub together would figure out who their real enemy is.
But, no.
And the corporate media is working overtime to make sure that any revenge-minded person focuses on politicians, liberals or minorities, instead of the 1%.

And speaking of President Obama, is he back from vacation yet?
When does he (and Michelle) leave for another vacation?
Palm beach is quite nice in February, and it is full of munificent golf courses.
–WSP7

Asoka
Strange, I have followed Paul pretty closely, never heard a peep about him spouting religiously militant views. Anyway, all the progressives need to get over the fact that Obama is far worse than the smirking little Bush who preceded him. Furthermore dear leader B.O. makes the recently departed Kim Jong Il look like a rank amateur in the dictator ratings game. Besides, true freedom IS the freedom to be stupid, so I say, if the states want to teach creationism, let ’em. Who do they hurt but themselves. In fact it could be an advantage to other states that CHOOSE to teach hard science and math, obviously less educated folks represent less competition in the marketplace.
So even though the Constitution has gone out of fashion, Paul is correct in the view that people should have the power of CHOICE over their lives. This point of view is completely stifled in the present existing political parties. Both parties seem obsessed with micromanaging the lives of billions of people on a global scale. They want to impose the socalled “American dream” on folks, even if they have to kill those people to do it. Once again Paul is the only candidate who has articulated a plan for peace. A huge achievement, giving voice to an idea that has been ruthlessly stifled by the existing political machine. Remember we have heard almost exclusively throughout 2011 from the political classes globally that “There is no alternative”, NONSENSE, there are always alternatives. Paul bravely offers a new vision, perhaps not perfect, but a much needed breath of fresh air in the stale political atmosphere we currently inhabit.
If the vision of peace fails, we all lose.

“Well, Jim I appreciate your posts as always, but I have some bones to pick with you my friend. 1) B. Obama is not incompetent, he has done exactly what he has been paid to do- protect the interests of the 1%. Nothing more, nothing les. Really Jim, despite his formidable skills at oration, his actions are crystal clear. His crowning achievement? The signing of the NDAA- codifying the new US police state and effectively opening the war with Iran. Not bad for a days work.”
Thank you, loveday. I have that same bone to pick with JHK. Despite his clear eyesight about so many of our problems, he persists in believing the Obama is a good guy, cluelessly mislead by evil Republicans, instead of the Wall Street puppet he really is.
Democratic wailing about poor Obama, and his inherited mess, and his hand-tying by the Republicans, willfilly ignores his skillful passage of the Heritage Foundation Health Insurance Enrichment Bill, his renewal of the Bush tax cuts for the rich last December (passsed by an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, who now are running against their bill), his increased wars, his assassination program, his attacks on whistle-blowers, and his massive giveaways to Wall Street.
Incompetent? Isn’t that the same line they used for Bush?

David, Ron Paul is both a climate skeptic, a physician who disbelieves in human evolution, and a poor editor of his own newsletter’s racist content.
Here’s Paul on evolution: cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/29/scitech/main20098876.shtml
Pity. I found him to be witty and low-key in radio interviews. But those three strikes mean he’s out of the running for me.

Yeah, the signing statement.
Apparently you missed the youtube video Carl Levin explaining that the reason the language to include Americans in the detention camps was in the bill, is because the Obama administration insisted it be in there!
It’s just like the Bush tax cuts extension. They know that Americans are incapable of remembering their actions.
So they do evil things, and then campaign against them!rt.com/usa/news/obama-detention-defense-levin-635/

lbendet,
Iran is China’s proxy in the Middle East. The Iranians provide a significant portion of Chinese oil, and the Chinese are not eager to see that base taken over by the US. The Chinese also know that the US is stretched militarily and is war fatigued. A war in Iran will also prove to be a suitable diversion for an invasion of Taiwan.
China’s economy has been in a bubble, but there are numerous signs that the bubble is collapsing. Civil unrest is going to be a big factor. Reorganizing China around a war footing likely makes a great deal of sense to the Chinese leadership – it refocuses the population away from seeking a Western style middle class, it strengthens the central bureaucracy after the liberalization of economic trade and it keeps the factors running, albeit swapping out bullets for iPads.
Russia’s playing a waiting game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they take advantage of the turmoil to reclaim the Baltic states. I’d say cartographers should be quite gainfully employed over the next decade or so.

How could you have missed that Ron Paul is a fundamentalist evangelical Christian creationist? Maybe you were distracted by his rants on fiat money?
When Ron Paul was asked about evolution, he said:It’s a theory — the theory of evolution — and I don’t accept it.
Of course, evolution isn’t a theory in the layperson’s usage of the word, the way Ron Paul means it, as a sort of hopeful guess.
Evolution is as much a theory as the theory of gravity. I expect more from a presidential candidate like Ron Paul. The “just a theory” defense is among the lamest possible, and really ill befits a doctor.

I have the feeling that Turkey would like to become a power in the region again. Perhaps a return to the days of the Ottoman Empire. One way to do that would to invade northern Iraq and seize their oil fields and build their power on that. Of course first they will have to get the Kurds out of their whey.

At least the fifth year in a row that Kunstler has whiffed with his ‘Dow 4000’ prediction. Predictable. But I must say I never would have anticipated the “pickle inflation” excuse. How do you spell chutzpah?

“Regarding this summer’s conventions. I have a feeling the authorities will invoke the need for security and the anti-terrorism laws to ban protest anywhere near the convention sites. “Legal protesters” will have to use a “free speech zone”, i.e. some barbed wire enclosure 10 miles away in a cow pasture. You will be allowed to wave your signs and shout as loud as you like in the compound. Let no one say we don’t have free speech in Amerika.”
This made me laugh out loud, hmuller. I don’t know why. It’s so true I should be crying.

From:ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=177766
[quote=”incorrect”]i think more technology doesn’t mean the elimination of jobs (strictly).. on a large scale, it means that we have a lot of workers with technology, efficiency in mind
rather than peoples jobs being eliminated, we create a culture of technically educated citizens, who play a meaningful role in creating some new technology or providing it as a service
manufacturing/industry will always be needed though.. but no one wants to ‘pay’ anyone to do it, because its often thought of as unskilled labor, so no one wants to do it
how do we reconcile these differences?[/quote]
Typical vague, ambiguous non sensical reply, typical words that seem to be saying something but are saying nothing, etc. Yeah, thre will be jobs, but they will be services “using high tech” (how idiotic, high tech exists exclusively to eliminate jobs and manipulations, to do more with less, to save “cash”, to eliminate “waste” (and paying people is always a huge waste, look at all of the EU governments hacking jobs and pensions and all they can because it is all considered “waste” (but waste for who ? for what ? totally idiotic economic theory!)).
No, jobs are no longer there no matter what: maybe a lot of jobs are imaginary, nominal, like doing the same things over and over again just because, because it “looks like work”, but maybe that is “real waste”, the same office meetings, reports, manipulations, documents, the same software programs written over and over again everyday for decades, pretending that that is “work”, just repeat, with slight differences what you did a week ago, a year ago, ten years ago, millions of jobs are kind of like this.
But alas, that is OK, that is fine, man defines anything anyway he wants, he sings and plays his own song, he defines all meanings arbitrarily and if IPHONE APPS are “productive new tools”, so be it, if “services” are “advanced” so be it, if McJobs are the future of an “advanced economy”, so be it, who gives two c*cks and a d*ck.
The idea is that there is less and less accumulation of result, accumulation of effort, serialization of labor (as in MANUFACTURING), collective effort for the “common good”, and more and more all disjoint little activities that don’t (and must not, else you would have way more excess capacity produced that would reveal how hugely rich our present day Technological Economy really is, the mask would fall, the truth revealed, billions of people would finally demand their scott free handouts as a right, bar none) add up, that don’t create a monolithic result like huge public private projects that add up, skyscrapers, rockets, trillions of brand new Lincoln Continentals, etc. That is why the emphasis is all on “small businesses” and “startups” and not on Space Travel, High Speed Trains, etc.
From:ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=175109
“4) The serialization of labor, the accumulation of labor processes is one of the things the capitalists are most afraid of: this would create a huge amount of wealth and it would become very difficult to hide how much wealth the system can produce, it would be hard for them to hog it all up for themselves, they would have to distribute it because there would be so much product that it would be impossible to not distribute it. Some examples, millions of homes built in Spain, now standing empty (but the prices don’t go down anyways) or Florida, same story. So many Chinese toys are sequestered by governments in Europe, but they just pop out all over again, as in those factories in China can produce a virtually infinite stream of toys, it doesn’t make a dent to them if they keep on losing huge batches of illegal toys, etc. And there are many other examples. So one important thing the system must impose is the atomization, parallelization of labor processes, each process in contrast to each other, each one destroying the work of the other so as to avoid the possibility that labor may add up, like in Rockets to Mars, Skyscrapers, or High Speed Trains.”TOBOR THE APE MAN

Why does the US back Isreal so much? I mean there are far more Italian and Irish Americans than Jewish Americans?
Perhaps 10 times as many
Why the willingness to send American youth to fight mid east wars

If you were a true Chomskyite, you would be more than happy to see lots of people writing their own blogs about current events and linking them to this one for those of us who are interested in hearing the points of view of more than just JHK.

Loveday,
I find it significant that Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul have generally voted consistently for much of the last decade. I know Dennis (and respect him as an honorable, intelligent man), and know that he has endorsed RP more than once over the years. What I’ve seen of Paul is that while he may have once been more socially conservative, more recently he’s generally been both very thoughtful and pragmatic, and has quite frequently voted his conscience rather than his ideology, even if it put him out of lockstep with the rest of the Republican party. His commentary on Bush II was generally scathing, with much of it directed towards the ideological agenda of the man.
I do not believe that Obama has been as bad as his detractors make him out to be, but I do believe that he is very much a centrist in a party of Centrists, and that expecting a sea change from him will disappoint most people. I haven’t yet decided who I will vote for this year, but I think we could do worse than Ron Paul.

And don’t personalize the problems, the OWSers talking about 1 % having all against the 99 % and all: it is structural and theoretical, it is only a clash of ideologies, nothing more, the theory is everything in this “struggle”, either you ask for scott free handouts and tell the powers that be that we now live in a Technological Economy that is way richer than what they all want us to think, or just go home and watch TV.
This is all a real pure ideological and philosophical battle, don’t get confused…

Don’t worry,
Everyone will “get it” and start learning computer code so they can become app entrepreneurs. We need more angry birds games and cheapo coupon deals for phones. You can bootstrap until the angels come along and finance you, then the New American Dream, becoming Mark Zuckerberg will be within your grasp.

JHK wrote,
“Both parties can only promise the return to a bygone status quo that is largely mythical.”
I’ve never seen it so succinctly and accurately put. This is Obama’s signal problem: he had a mandate for change but did not understand that the way forward means no return to pre-2008 living.
Even as the real estate market struggles back to its feet here, it’s a shadow of what it was. Given the likelihood of European collapse (again), I don’t think we’ll escape the “contagion.”
Thanks, too, for the canny remarks on Turkey, where I’ve traveled several times. They are the regional power to watch.
There are no whiners there as there are in America…faced with a once-downbeat economy, everyone seems to have three low-paying jobs and Istanbul is abuzz until the Big One knocks it to pieces again. The ancient buildings, like the Ottoman Empire itself, however, shrug off earthquakes. There’s a potent for you. The Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque will remain in a rubble belt of shoddily built high-rise banks and office blocks after the next quake.
But the Turks know they are far overdue for a massive one and are making what plans they can. I hope they can ride it out, because Erdogan’s balancing act of placating the Islamists on the one hand, as a man of faith, and being willing to use brutal force, as an inheritor of Ataturk’s secularist mantle, on the other, continues to astound me.
Turkey may not have oil, but they control key pipelines as well as another more precious commodity: the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They’ve damned them, and if anyone downstream makes too much trouble, they can just die of thirst when Turkey shuts the spillways. And Turks still farm with older methods or simple and easily mended machinery (I take note of tractors)…they won’t starve after Peak Oil.
A Turkish friend once quipped “Ah, the Bloody Turk,” after hearing a Western discuss his history. I reminded him, since I am a hot-headed man of Arab descent, that it was better to be the Bloody Turk than the Wimpy Turk. Such philosophy had its horrors, notably the Armenian Genocide. But for Muslim and Christian Arabs, Turkish rule was arguably the most stable era they’d known.
I noted that his people understood how to keep “my cousins” in line far better than Wimpy America with its drones and smart-bombs and soccer balls: you pay your taxes and send your sons to the Sultan, or heads roll in quantity. Do what the Viziers say, and you get new public buildings, some great Turkish cooks in your local taverns, and civil-service jobs.
Happy 2012. I’m now hungry for some Turkish food in a place where there are no fat people instead of the mall-clowns of the declining USA.

I don’t think the OWSers are going to let themselves be forced into a “free speech” park, after being chased out of so many parks by the police.
I suspect a bit more guerrilla and evanescent quality to the convention protests which will not even allow the police time to group and regroup.
Like the flash mob video I posted … the mob disappeared in three minutes and people melted back into the background, like fish in the sea … but they got their message across to the public.

RON PAUL ON ANTHROPOCENTRIC GLOBAL WARMING
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”
– Ron Paul, address to Congress, June 4, 2009
Is this who y’all are willing to vote for president? Ron Paul is a fundamentalist Christian creationist, for God’s sake … not for our sake.
Do you know what “sake” means?sake, sa·ke/s?k/, /?säk?/Noun: For the purpose of; in the interest of; in order to achieve or preserve.
Ron Paul is a fundamentalist Christian creationist, for God’s sake … not for our sake. Paul is as bad as Sarah Palin on the Christian front.

Well, much as usual Jim… since yer blogs been a sign-of-the-times citing…
Your sabre-sharp wit wins through… This is certainly the most enjoyable prediction read for 2012 so far! I for one look forwards to your new tome hitting the streets, unless the SOH skirmish goes ‘game on’ pre yer launch date…
I’m scheduled to be in Turkey come April, (all things remaining equal)… so twill be interesting to see what the ‘feel’ is on the ground there…. though out to sea once more I’ll be heading from Bodrum on a slick 44.7
My fave memories of last year were doing the Aegean back during Sept… a yacht delivery from Paros to Poros battling with the infamous ‘Meltemi’…. but I saw very little austerity out there amongst the island communities I visited, and yep I did many places from the Cyclades over to the Saronics…. Though on mainland Greece idle men aged 40-60s were endemic, shuffling around staring blankly into space…. then again 32c does have a soporific value for sure…
Hydra’s already geared up to the TLE as its all horse, mule and donkey powered there already. And I dare say marine diesel will be the most protected form of fossil-fuel after Miltel Avgas…. if the fuel disruption looming does hit it will be private motoring that you can kiss good-bye for good fastest… so dump the M5/Chevvie/Harley and buy a Frisker/Leaf/Tesla/Volt pdq.
If the worst then happens citizen lock-downs for national security reasons kick in obviously… as will be the freezing of large personal asset holdings too.This is why I remain firmly wedded to the thought that sailing skills are key folks, and access to a blue-water boat most useful…
And why the f#ck do you think the super-rich 0.1% has been investing in mega-yachts for the last decade or so? Staying off-shore for many months or more for many of them now really is quite easy…. in relative comfort too. Just as long as you choose to float around zones that are least likely to suffer nuclear sunsets…
@ Seekingplacetolivesafely…
If the yacht options out for you…. as to NZ? Well I’ll be doing the Pacific/New Caladonians myself too come 2012, will be acquiring the PADI in the process, so I’ll ping you when there – but on paper it’s got many positives…cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nz.html
It’s a giant farm with only 4.2m peeps and has the possibility of geo-thermal power, its not as relevant size wise to China as Oz is… but seismic activity brings issues as Japan has found out. But would I favour it over the UK or USA if nurturing a young family… defo.
*sniggers*
Cheers CFN’ers and heads down… eh…. for the coming fun and games, the looming French elections will give clues as to how the Eurozone unravelling continues… if Sarkozy gets back in, I dare say it will look good for Obama too.. going 2nd term.
Toodle-pip
A xx

Thanks guys,
I am Canadian but we follow US closely and i worry my sons may end up being pulled into a conflict not of there doing for a people they dont know.
I worry when i keep reading we will defend Isreal at all costs..
I am not of that background and doubt the children of Hollywood and Goldman Sachs will be drafted to fight in the middle east.
I havwe done well and would like to opt out and have a peaceful life for myself and my sons.

I am sad for the families here in the US and other allies who lost there children because of the battles in Iraq and Afganistan.
I see the need for fighting for Liberty but so many lives lost and injuries to so many fine young people is very sad.
I would prefer if the US gov’t spent more money on education for its young people, both Academic and Trade skills instead of war adventures..

Ron Paul is a basket case of contradictions, a bad thing for someone who does not go around saying he contains multitudes.
RON PAUL ON GERM THEORY
When the egg meets the sperm, a human being germinates, according to Ron Paul. So, Paul authored H.R. 1094, a bill that declares that “human life shall be deemed to exist from conception,” a standard Christian Right viewpoint.
But Paul once again contradicts himself. He introduced the federal legislation after he waffled and suggested that “states rights” should determine abortion laws. Paul is inconsistent, once again.
Look closely at Paul’s record and you will find contradictions galore.
Ron Paul talks about libertarian ideals and then undermines them by trying to pass a law declaring a fetus as human on a Federal level, thereby taking away states rights on the issue.
Y’all really want to elect an anti-abortion Christian fundamentalist, creationist, anti-global warming, anti-evolutionist like Paul as president?
Don’t be distracted by his dangling of gold standard baubles in front of your eyes.
Do you know what “bauble” means?bauble (Noun)A small, showy trinket or decoration.
Something of no importance or worth.
That pretty much describes Ron Paul’s intellect.

The pipeline from Canada to usa should be a national emergancy so that the US can wein off the Middle East before the shit hits the fan and we all get pulled into the next major war that is coming.
Thats and a major push into Natural gas, Solar, Wind and clean coal on power grid ASAP..
There is huge Canadian Natural Gas on east coast that could meet the demand for fuel from east coast of USA so the arguement for Middle East supplies can be reduced.
Perhaps even another national energy conservation mandate for increased efficiencies and cut down on waste
We have to get out of dependance on the FORIEGN OIL FROM MIDDLE EAST or we will have to send the Armed Forces to engage in more wars.
There is oil in Canada and Columbia both close allies to the US..That and clean energy in USA with a energy efficiency mandate would help cut the Middle East down a lot and in time completely
Just my advice

Wow Asoka
Sounds like you have a personal grudge against Mr Paul, or perhaps a bad case of cognitive dissonance. 1) Perhaps you have missed the deliberate fraud uncovered in several major universities regarding global warming. 2) Perhaps you missed the above posting from Paul’s book, sure seemed to me that he wasn’t really pushing a creationist point of view. He merely concludes that politicians should stay out of that debate, people should be free to CHOOSE what is compatible with their personal value system. In any case, the libertarian viewpoint leaves room at the table for many points of view. It merely demands polite consideration for all of those points of view. Something the current political duopoly has diligently worked to eclipse. Polite, intelligent discussion of the issues is to be avoided at all costs, because the needs/policies of the 1% simply can’t be defended with this sort of informed debate. So we see inflammatory rhetoric and polarizing debates brought to the forefront again and again. This strategy effectively blocks investigation into the financial malfeasance of the 1% and protects their fat greedy asses from being dealt with the same as Queen Marie Antoinette.
So chill out my friend, you make their job too easy.

“Obama did nothing to counter the newly erected Jim Crow laws being drafted by individual states to demand photo ids and proof of identity in voting.
How ironic is that? ”
What’s ironic is most people – even those who claim to abhor the automobile – support laws that require a prospective motorist to obtain a drivers license.
But requiring a prospective voter to produce a photo id is somehow resurrecting Jim Crow laws?
That’s ridiculous, LBendet, pure nonsensical hyperbole. And assertions such as the above is exactly why liberals are so easily dismissed… and why truly critical issues get thrown out with the goofy left bathwater.

I stick by a prediction I tendered back in March, after the deadly tsunami: Japan will decisively opt for a return to pre-industrial civilization.
—————————————-
Jim, your essay is so full of absurd, fact free, and fanciful hyperbole, I couldn’t even finish it. The above is perhaps, but just perhaps, the most ridiculous. I suggest counseling.

Perhaps you have missed the deliberate fraud uncovered in several major universities regarding global warming.
==================
No, I read the right-wing smog machine reports that we later fully discredited.
I don’t have a grudge against Mr. Paul. Indeed, I agree with many of his positions on foreign policy.
But I cannot stand by and watch him being presented as a “libertarian” when he again and again violates libertarian principles.
I also cannot let slide his Christian fundamentalism, which seems to be completely off peoples’ radar, which would have Mr. Paul utilizing big government to control the female uterus, where big government has no business going.
I have not even begun to point out the mountain of inconsistencies disguised as Ron Paul. I can go on all day without even having to utter the word “race”
Mr. Paul is not what he is portraying himself to be. He is not a libertarian.
Ron Paul is a fundamentalist Christian of the worst kind and an establishment Republican politician who votes the majority of the time with the official Republican line, taking advantage of the freedom to vote NO when it is apparent his NO vote will not affect the outcome.

What Jim is describing, I think is the country’s inablility to come to grips with the meaning of things, we float around in spin, jargon, junk science, religious mania, theories that work only in lab experiments. I agree that both political sides are usless, the conservatives are nazis, for the most part, the left are a bunch of dumb fucks that bring nothing to the table except hostility to their own society and an endless desire to prove ‘they care’ without doing anything constructive.

It’ll be Obama and Romney – there was never any doubt. And Romney can defeat Obama. So now now Obama is in a pickle: continue deferring to big time corporate interest along with appealing to national security minded independents or reach back to the base which elected him and which was more or less marginalized in the aftermath.
The internet is ablaze with anger and resentment over the looming SOPA legislation. If Obama signs this bill he will awaken a cyber hornets nest in an election year and seal his fate as a one-term president. His only option is appealing to his base in a run against another mainstream politician such as Romney.

Helen, on stem cells Ron Paul has an equally abysmal record.
Paul has been consistent in his desire to defund and prohibit stem cell research. He voted against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 as well as other similar legislation.
I would expect better from a doctor, but the guy is just following the right wing Christian line.
Ron Paul is like a stealth Christian fundamentalist candidate, because people seem to be ignorant of his fundie Christian legislation and votes.
He gets a pass from many because he is anti-war. Yaaayyyy, he is anti-war … but that should not blind us to who he really is.

Global warming a “deliberate fraud”? Obviously you don’t watch the news and are unaware of all the “unprecedented” weather events that have been taking place all over the world, with disastrous losses to crops and human lives. But I guess people believe what they want to believe, not what is really happening.

Love your response. I hope, against hope, that someone does go ballistic, even though it may be covered up by the MSM, who don’t want lucrative boats rocked. It would be even better if there was a coinciding meeting of upper government management with the Banksters at the time. Possibly to grease the corruption wheels with tax dollars? Also, please note that neither “Ozone” nor I are advocating any type of violence against our arrogant government. Just hoping somebody with balls does it for us!

Church and State were separated long ago, it’s true, but there are those who would like to see that changed, and if you’re a Canadian you should have noticed that this group includes Canada’s Prime Minister Harper.

BTW, regarding SOPA, Ron Paul does not even understand what SOPA is. He recently said
SOPA will: “take over the internet” and “monitor everything we do.”
Ron Paul completely and mistakenly characterized SOPA, showing his lack of understanding of the issue, but Paul’s personality came through in his remarks.
Paranoia and ignorance is a dangerous combination, but one that is abundant in Ron Paul’s record.
For the record, SOPA allows U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
So, if someone decides to steal JHK’s intellectual property, his e-books, SOPA will be there to protect JHK.
Oooooohhhh … scary!
It’s a government conspiracy perfect for Ron Paul to riff off of, but then most things are conspiracies for Paul.

Interesting predictions, JHK. I really like the “rutted wagon-road” metaphor. We are already in the midst that seems destined to become ever-bumpier. It’ll be a shame if we continue on without even the vaguest attempts to pad our asses.
I suppose my biggest prediction for the new year is that the European scene comes to something of a head and starts to undeniably unravel. (Really, it’s already started, but it’s still a bit deniable for those who are into that sort of insane and ridiculous wishful thinking.) Otherwise, I imagine we’ll have a very bitter election (obviously) and reality will simply continue to grind down on us unrelentingly. By the end of the year, most everyone will be poorer and more bitter and have a greater sense that things are going terribly wrong, but far too many still won’t understand why. Lord knows none of our leaders are going to stand up and be honest with us–especially when being honest means telling us we’re almost all full of shit, because we use way too much energy and resources. (And that includes all of us sitting on the internet, bitching about how everyone else in this country is full of shit.)
As for your prediction of a major third party candidate, I’m skeptical. I think the two parties may find their way through one last election without the sad party being crashed. But I’m not certain of that in the least, and I would be plenty happy to see Howard Dean make an appearance. I quite liked the guy in 2004 and while I’m not sure if I still would be fully on board, I’d certainly be interested in hearing what he has to say. I wonder how honest he’d be, and how much he even gets our predicament?
I think in the new year, we’re all going to need to engage in a lot of stealth infrastructure building. That right there was a rather shameless link to my own blog, and all should feel free to ignore it. But if you’re interested, I would argue we all need to be planting gardens and building up our household economies and learning medicinals and herbs and building things out of salvaged materials and planting helpful stashes of herbs in public places and so on and so on. Things are unraveling and the people in power aren’t going to fix it for us. Rather than holding tight to the idea that apocalypse will either make the world to our exact liking or make all of this irrelevant, I think we should be trying to stitch together a bit of that padding for our own asses, as well as those of our community. Seems like the best thing we can do at the moment.
Joel

Asoka,
Ron Paul is the only anti-war candidate. He is the only candidate who has vowed to veto any more money for the fake “war on drugs”. He claims it’s a racist and foolish law that targets mostly poor Blacks, so much for the pitiful canard of “his” “awfu”l newsletters.
He is the only candidate who has ever called for an audit of the Fed. His bill, signed into law, came up with a little 7.7 Trillion dollar handoff of taxpayer money to the banks.
On the war, banking and drugs issue he gets this Democrat’s vote. Abortion, alleged civil rights non-censoring of his followers newsletters and homosexual marriage are not more important than avoiding war and saving our economy.

Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism is without any doubt one of the major concerns for 2012, as you mentioned. You never seem to write about the internal contradictions of Israel, though. Jewish fundamentalist and fanatical behavior is tearing a hole in the rosy pretensions of Israel being a modern liberal democracy. The demand from the current government that Palestinians, and by extension the rest of the world, acknowledge that Israel is a ‘Jewish State’ is astounding, and a move to establishing a theocracy. If Republicans in the US of A were demanding that everyone acknowledge that America was a ‘Christian State’, you would be screaming about cornpone Nazis and revolution. We all have blind spots, and maybe this is one of yours. Or, like so many of the people you write about, you know there is a problem, but you just don’t want to acknowledge it. It would improve your credibility, one would think, if you wrote something about Jewish fundamentalism.

Quite right – the creationism charge is classic liberal slander. There are some people who believe that Adam rode a dinosaur, but I doubt if Dr Paul is one of them. We believe in a guided evolution, an intelligent design. What is so stupid about that? Atheism is not obvious to us at all. I grant that Theism isn’t obvious to many either. So Agnosticism is the fall back position for the intellectual qua intellectual. So? If we are going to continue to have public schools (not for much longer I hope), both Darwinian and Intelligent Design should be taught.
Note: there are some Creationists who use ID to discredit evolution. This is not Intelligent Design.

A “kook magnet”??? I’m a Ron Paul fan but, as so many others, I don’t expect him to win. Your quote from the Bible on public praying is correct, but you fail to note that it takes real balls to pray publicly today. That’s a sure-fire way to be labeled a “Corn Pone Nazi” and to endure ridicule from the self-obsessed elite. I’ll vote for anyone who isn’t Obama. Just hope it’s someone I can respect.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has issued a report card comparing the civil rights record of President Obama with that of the Republicans seeking to run against him in November.
According to the ACLU, two candidates, Gary Johnson and Congressman Ron Paul, have better records on civil liberties issues than President Obama.
The ACLU report card can be found here:aclulibertywatch.org/ALWCandidateReportCard.pdf

The Republicans are the the Vassals of the Corporate Elite but the Democrats merely the footstools. Is this really true? From what I’ve heard, the Democrats can raise as much or more than the Republicans can nowadays. Old myths die hard – like the idea of Communists as peniless peasants instead of very well funded saboteurs. Funded by whom? Perhaps the same ones who fund the Democrats since both “serve man” as in that Twilight Zone Episode.
Goldman Sachs is all over the Democratic Party. If the Republicans are the party of Big Business then the Democrats are the Party of Big Banking. So since Big Banking and Big Business are very connected, is there really that much ultimate difference between the two parties?
Both seek the erasure of our Borders, the North American Union, and ultimately a Global State. Both are utterly inimical to the best interests of America and the White Race.

Possibly because there aren’t any jobs available for them? Plus we, as a country, glorify the Warrior image. I’m not willing to have my children suffer so much as paper cut for Obama,so am not part of the military worship machine.

Your contrarian act becomes ever more vacuous and ill-informed. Perhaps you should read why so many tech companies and experts are against this bill before setting ablaze the straw man of Ron Paul yet again. And while you’re at it, explain why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is somehow now not sufficient legislation? In other words, laws already exist to “fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods”.
And speaking of vacuous, do you really believe that anybody with room temp IQ believes you’re constantly posting via some not easily accessed(your words, more or less) ISP in Central or South America? I don’t, which basically means I think you’re a liar. But just in case I’m wrong, take your time doing the research in the land of dial-up and difficult internet accessibility.

Regarding the fellow who asked about Jewish fundamentalism:
I attend Chabad, which is a mystical Jewish orthodox organization.
I have learned so much about Judaism, especially from the Oral Torah (the Mishnah, Talmud, Kabbalah), which digs deep in between the black Hebrew letters for a more enriched meaning.
That being said, those who are strictly observant would not step foot in a conservative or reform synagogue, believing those 2 strains to not be the real Judaism.
In addition,, there is no interfaith dialogue.
I also attend a Unitarian Universalist congregation – to give me more authenticity and balance in my religious life.
While I have learned more about Judaism in the 4 years I have been at Chabad, I would have never entertained the idea until after attending the UU church in 1999.
Most of the UUs are ex-Christians who do not buy into the dogma. Deeds, rather than creeds, is emphasized.
Shalom,
Don Levit

I knew a couple of Turks once – both were openly contemptous of the America they live in. Amazing to live in a Country and be willing to trash it to its citizens right to their face. Would you do it in Turkey? And would you get away with it?
I expresed my desire for White Rights to them. They were openly hostile. Felt Whites had no rights. I am still amazed years later at their arrogance and how they latched right on to a dynamic that can only lead to the diminshment of America and the ultimate death of the White Race. Clever and despicable. On and I did turn it back to them but you see, Turkey is a great place, and Turks are great people. Never have hurt anyone nor did anything wrong. And if they ever did conquer anyone, it was an honor to be conquered by such great people.
One of them did offer a fig leaf: America’s not a Country like other Countries – it’s just a place people come to make money (like himself I suppose). Well I have to admit he had something there. And yes, this is what happens if you believe and act as if nothing but economics matters. Do right and properity will follow. Seek properity alone and ultimately you wont even have a country anymore. And swarms of third worlders coming in are mere the coup de grace. The first cause was selfishness, the second the confused thinking that ensues from selfishness. Then everything else follows – endless immigration for cheap labor, a proposition nation, no concern for the environment, or even for the future since you aren’t tied to America, etc.

Helen
As a matter of fact no, I don’t watch the corporate controlled news, obviously it has an agenda to serve the needs of it’s owners, ie the 1%. However I am perfectly well aware of the major weather disasters that have been occurring. I am also aware that corporate money( once again the very rich 1%)has been given to fund global warming studies, scientists have had their objectivity compromised by the likes of the Koch brothers. So yes that compromises the conclusions of these studies. So no, I don’t think we have a definitive answer about the causes of the unstable weather that has been occurring.
Asoka
Yes Paul does get a pass from me for some of his views. Maybe he is a fundamentalist
Christian, I don’t know that for a fact. But if he is, advocating peace certainly doesn’t seem to be what I’ve been hearing from the Republican Religious Right these days. I just want to make my point of view clear once again, peace is the most urgent need at this point. If a nuclear conflict occurs it won’t matter about social security, abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research… get it? We’ll all be busy dying. So yes, even though I don’t agree with all of Paul’s agenda, I still think he is our best hope for the future- peace. Then he can reinstate the Constitution, sort out the financial mess at the FED, prosecute the criminal financial class according to the rule of law, prosecute those who have violated the Geneva convention laws- he has advocated all those things. He holds out the promise of more autonomy for the individual, liberty, and freedom ( including religious freedom ). Much better than anyone else offered at this time by the political machine. Will he really do those things? I sincerely hope so.
best to you in the New Year

Well, because I didn’t engage in a long thought process about it when I registered the domain–I just defaulted to the most common top level domain. I suppose one could spend some enjoyable time considering the irony of doing that for a fairly contrarian and decidedly non-commercial blog–and I would love to say that it was some kind of gloriously ironic jujitsu–but it was just the simplicity of mimicking the standard.
Joel

You bring up important points, Asoka. We can’t ever agree on anything anymore since we aren’t a united people. All our Public Institutions and Laws depend on shared vaules – which are now completely lacking. Why shouldn’t we agree to an amicable divorce as Switzerland did long ago. Acutally, their model is what America was supposed to be as envisioned by the Fathers…The States decide most everything. Reread the Bill of Rights and the 10th Ammendment.
Obviously they left out the procedures for divorce – most regretable since that lead to the Civil War. Any Union which does not allow departure is no Union at all, but a Tyranny.

Hollywood (West Hollywood) has its share of “piercing parlors”, but the place was dead on New Year’s Eve. It’s as if people are hunkering down like never before, as if they were almost dreading something. Sunset Boulevard was like a half-deserted, futuristic police state with manned cop cars idling every four blocks. Maybe they were on the lookout for “The Arsonist” as someone commented on earlier, in addition to the usual drunk drivers. I felt like I was walking through a scene from “Soylent Green”. It was hard to believe that a half century ago the street would have been bustling with young people. The few merrymakers I did happen to see looked like they were normally drunk all the time to begin with, and the music emanating from apartment windows was from the ’70s and ’80s (Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Prince). Even pop music peaked 40 years ago. Something’s got to give, this entropy and tension can’t go on forever. Well, entropy can I guess. This new year 2012—SOMEbody, SOMEwhere—is going to take a bullet. ‘Just my gut feeling. And here’s an idea (not mine, originally)now that we are in an election year: Let’s start referring to “Conservatives” as “Liquidators”. They’re not conserving anything, don’t allow them to get away using the self-righteous misnomer “Conservative”. What B.S. (Thank you Brian Czech, author of “Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train”, for this idea). Pass it along.

So people have no right to pray in public in other words? Don’t know about Canada, but here the Goverment has no Constitutional Right to obstruct our Religious Practice. But it is trying to do just that. Like that Lesbian who wanted to become head of a Christian Club at Tufts. When told no, she got the club kicked off campus. An obvious set up. Most of the student zombies agreed with getting the club kicked off campus.
Notice you Candians never talk about your Stalinist Human Rights Commission. It is shameful. They have never indicted anyone but White Christian Males so I suppose you have no problem with them though.

Vlad:
I am not versed enough on the Zohar and Talmud to express their thoughts about Christ.
I would be very surprised if Christ is actually specifically named. As far as serving exclusively the Jews, I would say that is correct.
One of the problems I have with Chabad is that they distinguish between a Jewish soul and a non Jewish soul.
Gentiles need only honor the 7 Noahide Commandments.
Observant Jews have 613 commandments, of which only about two-thirds can be observed, because we have no Holy Temple.
That being said, Judaism has very little to say about an afterlife.
Similar to UUs, deeds rather than creeds are emphasized.
This is opposed to many fundamentalist Christians, who use hell as a come-on to scare the beejabbers out of people.
From my perspective, there is nothing more selfish, more self-serving, than believing one guy is going to heaven and another guy is going to hell, based strictly on their beliefs.
How can an aware human being make an objective decision with that noose hanging around his neck?
Don Levit

It is bizarre also that JHK goes along with the corporate media propaganda about Iran.
The US has been threatening Iran for years. It has surrounded Iran with bases.3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzPhXA7TPXI/TuYbChN4M2I/AAAAAAAAEv4/dT8v08bautg/s1600/iran2.jpg
It has sent warships off of Iran’s coast and threatened to attack it with nuclear bombs. Congress just passed a law to cut off Iran’s ability to use banks.
And JHK says that Iran has lost its mind? And assumes that Iran is working on a nuclear bomb?
Who gives the US the right to decide who shall have nuclear bombs anyway?
We are the only country in 66 years to ever have used nuclear bombs on another country. We have stockpiled thousands since then. We have threatened to use them multiple times.
And Iran is crazy?
On what rational grounds can anyone say that?

Ron Paul is the only anti-war candidate.
=====================
Yes, Ron Paul is so anti-war he said the United States should not have gotten into WWII … because it was none of our business “to save the Jews.”
Are you, like Ron Paul, an anti-Semite, too?
Are you, like Ron Paul, Anti-Israel?
Ron Paul has been pretty clear he wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. Kook magnet.
Ron Paul is a Texan Christian fundamentalist. We had one of those as president from 2000 to 2008 and it was a disaster.
Ron Paul would be an even greater disaster as president. But he won’t be nominated by the Republicans.

The rationalization about nuclear weapons, I believe, is that the U.S. is a “responsible, mature” country so we can handle nuclear weapons, while other countries do not share this similar maturity and responsibility.
Shalom,
Don Levit

loveday, last week Ron Paul told Iowa voters that Iran needs nuclear weapons to “gain respect” from Israel.
Ron Paul is so anti-Israel I wouldn’t be surprised that he would arm Iran with nuclear weapons if he thought Iran would use them to eliminate Israel.
Please don’t use Ron Paul and “peace” in the same sentence. A “peace” based on threat of nuclear annihilation is a misnomer.

asoka, joining the 1%’s battle against Ron Paul is not helpful to your belief in a better, more peaceful world.
Glenn Greenwald says it better than I.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/
It’s as if he wrote this part for you –
“Whatever else one wants to say, it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure with any sort of a national platform — certainly the only major presidential candidate in either party — who advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial. The converse is equally true: the candidate supported by liberals and progressives and for whom most will vote — Barack Obama — advocates views on these issues (indeed, has taken action on these issues) that liberals and progressives have long claimed to find repellent, even evil.”
Of course I don’t support Ron Paul’s economic or social issues policies, but it amazes me how many of my good leftist Facebook friends are joining Fox News, the corporate media, the Republican Party, the Democratic party, and the liberal blogs to pile on Ron Paul. Don’t you see that if the entire Establishment is attacking someone, that he is a threat to them? Clearly, it’s because he is attacking the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex and the Homeland Security-industrial complex. Why would leftists waste their time and energy attacking a man who The Man so obviously hates? Where do you think that the money is coming from to research these old newsletters, and write the damnning articles? Do you really think that the same dirt, and worse, be dug up about the other candidates? Ron Paul is the ONLY corporate party candidate speaking out against war and for civil liberties. Why would leftists not want such a person to run against the fascist Obama?

The Jews believe that we have no right to the Ten Commandments since we aren’t really people. Here’s a link to Amazon where you can purchase the books “Jesus in the Talmud” and “The Talmud Unmasked”. You’ll learn about the slanders and obscenitites levied against Christ by the Rabbis and the general worldview of the Talmud: Christians as scum, Gentile Women as whores, Non Jews as animals, alright to cheat gentiles since they only appear to be human, gentiles only exist to serve the Jews, etc. It’s all very Ugly – the essence of Ugliness.
Christ encountered the early form of this when it was still just an oral doctrine held by the Pharisees – and he reviled it and them. Thus there can never be peace between the Jews and real Christians until Jews renounce these teachings and return to original Judaism – which is ethnocentric enough. They still exist, a few of them. Google Kairites. As for the Christian Zionists – no words can describe their duplicity and stupidity. They have spat in the face of Christ.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jesus+in+the+talm…
I know Reform doesn’t emphasize these teachings and many do not even know about them. But the Reform Rabbis know and say nothing. The problem is not solved and the Reformists are as sterile as other Westerners even as the Orthodox have huge families. The future of Israel and Judaism belong to them in present trends continue.

Ron Paul may even be an honest man – which is huge in America today. He may actually try to do what he has said he would. Again huge. Keeping us out of Iran is enough to vote for him. And cleaning up the Fed – heaven.
He has been saying the same thing for 40 years. He has earned the right to try to save America before all these liars, flip floppers, and store bought men.

We already elected, whoops, actually, we had an appointed fundamentalist Christian, anti-abortion, anti-evolutionary President.
That one even thought that God spoke to him.
Unfortunately for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, God told Georgie to go kill them and their children.
Now we have a President who says “God Bless America” every time he opens his mouth.
We had a Vice President who fervently believed in global warming and the hazard it poses to life on this planet.
That Vice President led the delegation to Kyoto, where he sabotaged the negotiations, so that the US military could be exempted, and so that cap and trade was installed.
Since the beginning of cap and trade, global warming has increased, while speculators have made money from trading carbon credits.
I’m hard pressed to get too excited about any corporate candidate for President.
Jill Stein for President.

I don’t know, Asoka, last night in NYC the NYPD arrested 64 Owsers. Some were charged with serious felonies (assault on a police officer, carrying dangerous weapons) and sent over to Rikers. That must be a shock, being in Rikers all the sudden. Don’t underestimate the capabilities of the police. They routinely handle dangerous criminals; a few ponytailed idealists and utopianists will be no problem for them.
–WSP7

You can’t even read the Bible correctly.
asoka quoted a verse which tells you NOT to pray in public, and you say that you agree, and then start talking about “real balls”.
geez. Again, you show your idiocy.

Not a huge fan of Canada as well..
Question can America afford another 4 years of big spending?
Ron Paul seems to be the only candidate with sound understanding and an immediate severe action plan economically.
Whats wrong with stopping the policeman of the world and closing most military bases…

Great post as always JHK, but you forgot one major hotspot that has the ability to trigger World War III just as it triggered World War I. I am of course talking about the former Yugoslavian republic of Bosnia. A newly radicalized and aggravated Muslim population isn’t taking too kindly to being left out of negotiations by neighbors Croatia and Serbia to join the European Union. Nearly two decades after the Dayton Accord brought a temporay lull to that nasty gang fight between the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, the country is even more divided today as Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats live in a self-imposed apartheid that guarantees that the three groups will live much like the white and black citizens of the American south under Jim Crow. What’s worse, the Bosnian economy continues to melt down as gangsters and grifters continue to tighten their grip on the dysfunctional entity that can’t decide if it’s two autonomous regions [the Muslim-dominated Bosnia-Herczegovina and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska] governed by a weak central government or two nations that pretend to have a central government.

Trust me Helen, you’ll be the last to know about this as well as everything else. And then you’ll pretend to have never believed it. Carry on bringing up the rear.
Still believe Hillary Clinton is an advocate of Western Civilization as opposed to being a disciple of Saul Alinsky like Obama is? Or was that Observer? There’s not much difference between you old liberal ladies. All clones of each other, often even physically.

That may be the rationalization, but it’s not rational.
As for being a responsible,mature country, the USA is just over 200 years old, and has been at war for a good part of that time.
How old is Iran?
Peace.

“There’s not much difference between you old liberal ladies.”
Same could be said of hate-clotted racist guys, though in my experience they do come in six physical types:
–Middle-aged fat man yelling at TV or radio
–Middle-aged skinny-scary guy with lots of guns, and silent. Too silent.
That’s only two. Variables are buzzcut, bald, or (rarest sub-species) long greasy hair.

JK,
When you go on and on in a sort of “stream” style of writing you lose much credibility. You could have just as much meaning and more impact if you simply state what you know about – and state those facts succinctly.
Anyway, happy new year. I think you know as well as I that “nothing” is likely to go down for some time. This election will be no more eventful than the last.
Worth discussing: Why did Occupy Wall Street fail so miserably? Can sheer participant numbers – the only feasible power of OWSers – be enough to affect change?
What would have happened if 300,000 blockaded Zucotti park and Wall Street?
What would happen if 3 million people surrounded and blockaded the congressional buildings and K-Street?
Is simple passive civil participation effective at this stage of democracy? Is the lack of participation at OWSer events a sign that the people are satisfied, or complacent or proof that they are ignorant?
Please reply to the post – I no longer “wade” through this swamp-blog thoroughly.

I’m not preaching. I don’t care what you do, as long as you keep your insane beliefs to yourself, and quit forcing them onto other people.
I was just pointing out that julietta can’t read.
And it looks like your other illiterate friend is back claiming to be a Canadian.

Hey Asoka I work down in Hartford and personally witnessed the HPD roust out the Owsers one night last month. It wasn’t a pretty sight; leaden skies, heavy rain, city police in riot gear, carrying H&K automatic weapons, surrounding the encampment and moving in, canine squads, all backed up by State Police, the Fire Dept, Sanitation, and Hazmat teams. Those kids didn’t have a chance.
The Owsers are still camped out in New Haven, a 3rd world ‘Sanctuary City”. Several nights ago they were attacked by an armed black street gang in the middle of the night who kicked over their tents and threatened them with semi-auto pistols.
There is the vanguard of your revolution, Asoka, hardly the legendary Red Guard or Comsomol of yore.
–WSP7

Why live with people who are hostile and have nothing to offer but their endless needs and hostility? Not even a thank you for services rendered.
We would be wise to follow the Yugoslavian Model and separate. It is the coming paradigm all over the world.

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State simply means recognizing Israel as a State where the ethnic Jews are the Sovereign. The reason this is important, is because part of the Arab Jihadi plan to destroy Israel is by way of a cultural and demographic bomb, same as they managed in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, etc.
As for Judaism, it used to be an amalgam of religious ethnic nationalism. Today, most Jews are non-religious, so today Judaism means an amalgam of ethnic nationalism without the old religion. Sure, old “religious” national customs are still celebrated, but very few Jews believe in god and even fewer want the “religious” parasites to lord over us again.
Regards Vlad, you need to know that he is a Vatican Sith and a consummate troll. Pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth is for the purpose of re-instituting the Dark Ages and Vatican/Roman empire, while at the same time he continuously regurgitates his master’s propaganda in scapegoating “DA JOOS” for any and every political machination his Vatican/Jesuit masters try to hide behind.

Happy New Year to all, and thanks for a great set of predictions for us to chew over this week, JHK.
Here’s a JHK prediction that no one on here has discussed, so far, yet it is the most terrifying of them all.
“…wrap your mind around life in an economy organized around farming, with a much sparser distribution of big urban centers, and far fewer people overall.” =JHK-
Yeah. Indeed, JHK, today’s population trajectory can NOT last forever. Fewer cities, smaller cities, with most people trying to scratch out a living in the countryside, without diesel, fertilizer, or herbicides. This is the future we need to consider.
“The question, then, is what kind of hardship and disorder will attend our journey out of the industrial era into post-technological age we are entering.” -JHK- Very good question, James.
The sensible thing for the United States would be to modify legal immigration policy, now, to reduce “hardship and disorder” in the future. The fact this is not even being considered is testimony only to the blinkered Left/Right paradigm that is National Politics.
The fact that these ideas will be attacked on CFN, is testimony to the way that ONE poster thinks he owns the discussion, and has the duty to impede the dialog here, if it strays into an area with which he disagrees.
Wonder if anyone ELSE on CFN is in favor of high immigration rates into the US, for ever and ever?
We’d like to hear your reasoning.

Really! Would you like to compare IQ scores? And there is no “again”, since I’ve not touched on this subject before. Possibly you could read the passage for yourself assuming that 1. You can read and comprehend and 2. That you have a Bible within reasonable range. Try the library.
On another note, I really like JHK’s pick-up on Obama’s use of “folks” which has always struck me as insultingly phoney. Don’t know if we’re supposed to think of him as one of the guys, just kicked back in the chair and spitting tobacco at the wood stove, which is implausible at best, and confounds credulity.

Hands off Satan. You’re not getting Don’s Soul. I’ve made knowledge available and I have no doubts (yes I do) that he will make the right decison.
On the other hand, I have alot of trouble believing someone could be associated with Chabad and not know the things I pointed out. Hope I’m wrong.

Chabad is a subsidiary of the Vatican. You know it, I know it, but unfortunately too many others don’t.
There’s nothing jewish about Chabad. Nothing jewish about their vatican issued “jewish” garb. Nothing jewish about their vatican scribed talmud. Nothing jewish about the source of their income, which is vatican funding.

Jim Jim, Jim,
I used to send you e mails of encouragement way back n the early days of “Klusterfuck”, but your writing has turned into the hyperbole of a health or financial newletter. It grieves me that your brilliant mind and wonderful knowledge of english has become as strident as your acolytes.
Robert

First you talk about real balls, then you want to compare scores. Sounds like a gender problem to me.
I said that you proved your idiocy again, not that you talked about public praying before.
Guess you had a little trouble with reading comprehension.
Again.

Thanks to all who have an open mind regarding candidate Paul. Let me clarify, he is not a corporate candidate, never has been, he has simply had enough integrity to be elected again and again in Texas. Ah Asoka, invoking the tired, hysterical, old anti-semitic smear against Mr Paul. He has simply said all foreign aid should be cut off from Israel and all other countries as well. That’s keeping tax dollars at home to meet the needs of the population that have paid those taxes.
Thanks for pointing out -poster above that Paul has been targeted by both the left and the right. Because he represents ideas those parties want to suppress. Peace should be an overriding priority, other issues can be sorted out later.
take care all

House of Cards – sung by Robert Plant
Oh the rain is falling (blow blow down)
And the wild wind roars (blow blow down)
It’ll shake your windows (blow blow down)
And rattle your doors (blow blow down)
Ah blow down this house of cards
Blow down this house of cards
They’re washing the streets (blow blow down)
With the blood of your kind (blow blow down)
Ah look over your shoulder (blow blow down)
They are right behind (blow blow down)
Oh blow down this house of cards
Blow down this house of cards
The birds are wheeling (blow blow down)
Up above your head (blow blow down)
Ah your days are numbered (blow blow down)
You’re as good as dead (blow blow down)
Ah blow down this house of cards
Blow down this house of cards
This very fine house (blow blow down)
Of great renown (blow blow down)
It’s cracked and shaking (blow blow down)
And a-tumbling down (blow blow down)
Ah blow down this house of cards
Blow down this house of cards
Blow down this house of cards
Oh blow down this house of cards

@seekingplacetolivesafely
The Keystone pipeline will serve Canadian interests only, and do nothing but provide more oil for exports. If you think the pipeline will help bring the price down, or give the US more oil to use, you’re fucking dreaming. Holy shit. Get real.
Anyone remember Gore’s presidential campaign petroleum reserve release accomplished for the poor northeasterners who were about to experience a bad winter?? Guess where that oil ended up? At the ports of the highest bidders, England and Italy among them. Get that – it left the US and never came back.
Just like the Oil from Canada will.

Yes, yes, yes. We are borrowing money to lend to other countries. It’s madness from A to Z. It must end – why wait until disaster strikes. Dr Paul is the only national figure whom we can trust who has a chance to change ANY OF THIS. Let’s give him the shot he deserves. That we deserve.

Happy New Year Asoka. Weather in MA. is nice for this time of year. I was down the street the other day and my onions were still growing. The ground is not even frozen yet. No snow except for the superstorm on Halloween which destroyed a lot of the hundred year old maples and many of the fruit trees. The banana and mangoe trees also took a huge hit ;o)

Vlad:
Other than Gentiles and Jews having different souls, I am not aware of any of the differences you alluded to.
From my understanding, Jews have been kicked out of virtually every country in the world.
The purpose for the 613 commandments is more like behavior therapy – to make us a better, mote holy, more God-like people.
Unlike the Christian misunderstanding, these 613 commandments are not to save us from hell. Rather, they are to make us better people on earth.
In addition, Jews do not believe in original sin, which has destroyed the psyches of many people I know.
We believe we are born with the inclination to sin, just like we are born with the inclination to do good deeds.
The inclination to sin (the yetzer hara) is believed to be stronger than the inclination to do good (the yetzer tov). Thus the 613 commandments, which can also be translated as 613 good deeds, are done to weaken the evilinclination and strengthen the good inclination.
Regarding free will, the Talmud states the only free will we have 100% control over, is our moral choices.
Shalom,
Don Levit

Nice 2012 prediction post JHK – entertaining and insightful as always.
Replying to loveday:
It is unseemly to go ad hominem – and call “cognitive dissonance” on someone, just because they hold views different to yours. Do you even know what cognitive dissonance actually is (other than an insult?). And in relation to the Creationists – that is their whole point as well. They would like to equate and compare their nut-fudge supernatural paranormal superstitions with established, researched, and respected science – the evidence for which is overwhelming.
There is no equivalence that any reasonable person could accept. And as much as a libertarian might like it to be the case, it is NOT an issue where people should be free to CHOOSE the theory that suits their beliefs … that is just pig dribble, I’m afraid – and unsubtle code for letting every corn-pone backwards skool district CHOOSE to teach flat-earther bible stories rather than real science.
This is all terribly dangerous stuff – it is 2012 people – let go of all the Creationist oogoo-boogoo and ancient mythologies, and join the real world. For one thing, it is much more fascinating, fun, and informative than any fable could ever be.
Ron Paul is a nutter, pure and simple … thankfully he won’t be President of Amerika. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to all! Love your extended predictions column, JHK. Its covers a lot of ground. The most exciting bit of news is you are working on the World Made by Hand III. Can’t wait to read it. Will even pre-order it!
Don’t think Iran will live up to its stupid threat. If they cut off the pass and block other countries’ oil tankers, they are cutting off other countries’ main source of income. And that would really piss those other countries off. An embargo would cut off Iran’s income too and Iran doesn’t have the bucks to start WWIII. Neither does Europe, Russia, China or anybody else. Everyone’s broke. And if everyone is broke, everyone will have to behave. Except for Wall Street. They will figure out some way to squeeze us all again and then make us bail them out. Can you go to war against corporations instead of countries? Mass consumer complaining seems to work. BoA had to withdraw its $5 fee when enough people complained. Verizon had to withdraw its $2 fee for the “convenience” of paying their bills. Shouldn’t Verizon just be happy that anyone is able to pay their bills? Corporate greed = insanity.
Here’s the main difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are working to cut off food stamps, wanted to stop paying unemployment for that 2 month gap but then had to go back and sign on after Boehner changed his mind and then completely caved and the old voter suppression thing has reared its ugly head again. Why let poor folks, old people or non-whites vote? They might pick somebody who’s not GOP. The Republicans will vote for anybody whose NOT Mitt. So Ron Paul, even with his racist and anti-Semitic tracts turning up all over the place, looks appealing and so does Rick Santorum (the creepiest guy in the debates). All Obama has to do it point out how lousy the Tea Party infested Congress is and he wins by the landslide. My mother-in-law, a staunch Republican, is disgusted by the current crop of GOP candidates. She says she will vote independent. Which may turn out to be a vote for Donald Trump, which is huge, HUGE.
Cutting off food stamps would definitely be insanity. Letting little children starve while the Wall Street bigwigs party on their ill-gotten loot? Oil isn’t that important, money isn’t that important, food is VERY important. And access to clean, potable water. Take food and water away and you’ve got a recipe for a very bloody revolution. Anybody could figure that out. But the Tea Party is all about the corporate dogma and not about common sense. Feed the people and get the vote.

Bud,
What would happen if 3 million people surrounded and blockaded the congressional buildings and K-Street?
Simple,just call in the jets and dump some naphalm. Just like Fritz the Cat ! A classic cult flick from back in the 70’s.
Think about the power that can be brought to bear thanks to Levin/Hanoi Jack S-1867.
Down the road apiece making anti anything noise will result in the harshest treatment. Drones to pick off the leadership and gas or naphalm for the rest.
Resistance is futile, the BORG are here !

J.K.: The only thing that is going to revive the U.S. economy is a war – a real war, where everyone is involved, not like the phony wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where only the poor, underclass boys and girls with no other options had to make all the sacrifices. And we are very likely to have one, starting in Iran, Israel etc. and spreading from there, as countries choose sides as they have always done in the past. It will become like WW2, where everyone in America was affected, one way or another. Only now we have nukes, and the stakes are much higher. We may well end up with a Mussolini here to keep the trains running, and the grocery stores full, as you say. I agree that Obama is floundering, but he is the only one around at present with an ounce of intelligence. He well may grow some cajones, fire his staff, and hire some new people with better ideas. Franklin D. Roosevelt was also up to his ass in shit, but had the wisdom to try many new things to help save the economy; but ultimitely, it was WW2 that got America out of the Depression of the 30’s.

Here’s a third party candidate saying all the right things:democracynow.org/2011/12/13/ex_salt_lake_mayor_rocky_anderson
Plus he has just the right name for an underdog contender…
ROCKY ANDERSON: We launched the Justice Party because the entire system is so corrupt. It’s so diseased. We know that the public interest is not being served by anyone in the system right now, particularly the two dominant parties who have sustained this corrupt system and who are sustained by it.
AMY GOODMAN: Third party, what does that mean now? How exactly will you run for president?
ROCKY ANDERSON: Well, actually, I consider this a second party. The Republican-Democratic parties have—although they’re at an impasse, much to the detriment of the American people, on some issues, they really, through their collusion, have brought this country to its knees economically….

Obama’s signing statement appended to the NDAA, which gives the US President the power to detain Americans indefinately without trial:
“My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens … Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation,” wrote Obama.chinaaid.org/2012/01/disappeared-human-rights-lawyer-gao.html
FLASH: “Disappeared” Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Imprisoned in Remote Far Western China
China Aid Association
(Washington, D.C. – Jan. 1, 2012) For the first time since his most recent forced disappearance 20 months ago, the whereabouts of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng were confirmed on Sunday.
ChinaAid learned that Gao Zhisheng’s older brother, Gao Zhiyi, received written notification on Sunday of Gao’s incarceration in Shaya Prison in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in far western China. The notification was signed and dated on Dec. 19 by the prison.
Gao disappeared into police custody in April 2010, the most recent in a series of forced disappearances since his 2006 conviction on a subversion charge. On Dec. 16, just days before his five-year probation period was to have ended, the Chinese government announced that it was sending him to prison for three years for violating his probation. It was the first word that he was still alive, but no information of his whereabouts or condition was released.
Shaya (Xayar) Prison is located in Aksu Prefecture, about 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) southwest of the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
“Gao’s internal exile reminds the world of how former Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov was cruelly treated in Siberia in the 1980s,” said ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu, a friend of Gao. “The Chinese government can use this remote jail to prevent concerned people from visiting Attorney Gao, but just like Sakharov, Gao’s courageous voice can never be silenced by the four walls of his prison cell.”
Gao Zhiyi is planning to visit Gao Zhisheng as soon as he gets a physical address of the prison.
The prison’s mailing address is : Shaya Prison, Shaya county, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Postal code: 842208
Prison phone number: +86-997-8402100.
Gao Zhiyi’s phone number: +86-151-9198-5726

Thanks Don. You answered none of my points proving that you know all about the Filth that the Talmud contains. So much for your smarmy little innuendo about how Judaism is superior to Christianity. The truth is that Judaism has been so messed with, that it can’t serve the needs of most Jews – thus they become Seekers towards the East or West. People need to believe in a life after death, silly. And certainly the Chabad do – but other Jews aren’t worthy of knowing about that, right?
Israel is 8% Christian – and it will continue to increase. Happy? All your own fault since you wont teach the People without hate. Christ kept much of the best of Judaism – not all though. Turn the other cheek doesn’t really cover all social relations. And some of the hygienic stuff could also be valuable. But I’m talking about the Ancient Law, not the demonic Talmud.
Btw, I’m only writing in case other people are following. I know you are too far gone to listen to anything. Born with an evil inclination – sounds like original sin. And boy are you ever right on that one. The Heart is corrupt above all things.

When? If so, I didn’t mean to. I did disagree with you about Bush – it was shock that I expressed not insult or at least that’s what I tried to express. In other words, the Neo Liberalism of Obama is no different than the Neo Conservatism of Bush. Obama has continued the policies of Bush. Obama is Black Bush, Bush a White Obama. Different colored products and marketing strategies for different target audiences.
I think you are right btw. I think the Republicans aren’t smart enough to beat Obama or perhaps it’s all decided from above at this point. Or if the elections are still free, and Obama seems to like he is going to lose, maybe they’ll pull him in favor of Hillary. And she will continue to the policies of Bush/Obama. Different plumbing same policies. She’s a disciple of Alinsky just as Obama is – actually a friend of the late Alinsky. A hard core Communist in Liberal Deomocrat guise.
Bush is supposed to be an Evangelical but can we be sure? His wife came out in favor of gay marriage last year. Maybe they disagree… But more to the point, Bush is a member of Skull and Bones. No Christian can be part of a Masonic or Neo Masonic Organization. All Churches are in agreement on this. Of course he might be just disorganized as a person and not see the contradiction… In any case, he proved a useful tool in the hands of his Masters.

asoka, joining the 1%’s battle against Ron Paul is not helpful to your belief in a better, more peaceful world.

Wage, Ron Paul is part of the 1% who has profited from his service in the Republican Party.
I don’t really care who wins the Republican nomination. They are all Red Party. Ron Paul’s voting record is 77% of the time he votes with the Republican establishment (the 1%).
All last year CFNers were telling me that elections don’t matter, that there is no difference between Red Party and Blue Party.
Suddenly the tide has changed and some CFNers want to vote for the Red Party, for a candidate who mostly votes with the Republican majority. WTF!I am not going to vote Red or Blue.
I am going to vote (even if I have to travel to vote absentee in the American Embassy) for the GREEN PARTY.I am voting for JILL STEIN.
It’s time for a woman president who is not bought and paid for by Wall Street. Corporate men (the 1%, most of whom are white) have fucked up the whole planet.

I am as reluctant to quote back to you your own writing to you as I am to go to an author lecture in which the author reads from their own just published work, so I won’t do that.

However, I really believe your analysis of the last three years of the Obama presidency is well stated and worthy or rereading.

I know you enjoy the sarcastic and disdainful tone you adopt for most of your weekly rants, but when you abandon that sassy adolescent who just discovered a thesaurus voice, your thinking and the writing that reflects it are quite good and worthy of being called adult. Thank you for that.

So for Christmas I got a set of DVD’s for the series “BReaking Bad” from my daughter. I was always a chemistry geek . CH3NH2 . It is a great show if ya get a chance to watch it. I think in TLE people will need to resort to the old ways. I am learning more every day. I hope to spread the word ASAP to to the younger knuckleheads around me. Actually some of them listen to me and don’t think I am a crackpot? Go Figure! So There ya go, Watch list again! Drugs ARE NOT COOL but people will do them whether they are legal or not. I live in a small rural community and if I was inclined to I could go get a bag of dope in 5 minutes.
BR=Bromine B=Boron

Regarding your comment about Ron Paul: Paul’s belief is that the issue of evolution vs. creationism is not settled. My guess is he hasn’t spent a lot of time studying the issue and if he did he would find the paleontological evidence persuasive. That said, the beauty of Dr. Paul is he does not believe it is the role of government to promote one point of view or the other. He may harbor various and sundry biases you don’t agree with yet he won’t use force (government) to promote them.

As a female, I don’t have balls, but I like and admire them in men. What I was trying to get across to you (obviously an exercise in futility) was that it’s hard to stand up for what you believe if it’s politically incorrect, and weaker people choose the most expedient recourse to avert criticism.
As far as my “idiocy”…..
Neener, Neener, Neen

Continued as my computer just blipped….We’re having a mini-blizzard and electricity is rather haphazard in our area.
Neener, Neener, Neener
My dad can beat up your dad
So’s your mom
You can name it, but you won’t claim it.
It’s been a while since I was in the second grade and those are all the “scathing rebuttals” I can dredge up from that time.

Howdy RippedT, Per your comment: “bonified USP antibiotics you can buy them all day long on eBay”
Thanks for the great heads-up. I have been buying worming meds for my dogs from fish/aquatic dealers but had never happened upon the antibiotic end of it. I ofttimes use left over antibiotics of mine for them but I have not had a need for any since having my second Knee replaced a couple years back so have been forced to cough up about a buck or more a capsule for cephalexin at the Vets vice the 30 cents each for them on eBay. Perchance have you ever run across a reasonable source for flea and tic potions such as advantix?
SNAFU

Thank you, Vlad. As I recall, that was the exchange of which I was thinking. And no, you didn’t “insult” me. Sorry for the overreaction. I’m not a Bush fan, either, and think something went terribly wrong during his two terms. I was thinking of Bush as a venial sin and Obama as a mortal sin, when actually, they’re both on the same level. I just find Obama and his hideous wife more obnoxious.
God Forbid we end up with Hillary, the “most admired” woman in the world. Holy Cow! What can people be thinking? Maybe we are too stupid to save.
If it helps at all, I always look for your posts first and I really do pay attention to your views. Happy 2012 and may it not be as awful as I think it’s going to be.

How can you say Ron Paul wouldn’t use government to force his values on the citizens when that is exactly what he has done in legislation he has sponsored and legislation he has voted on to get big government involved to back his own brand of morality, for example with abortion rights and stem cell research.
Millions of citizens could die from diseases which stem cell research could have prevented. Why does Ron Paul want millions of Americans to die from preventable diseases? Sounds like he wants to eliminate a good part of the 99% … maybe it is a conspiracy headed by Ron Paul to reduce the population?
If I were a woman I would be outraged by Ron Paul’s legislation against freedom of choice, against liberty.
Why should Ron Paul be writing FEDERAL legislation to micro-manage what women decide happens in their own uterus in each of the 50 states?
Several CFN posters say we need to reduce USA population. We need family planning and birth control and abortion. To meet the constitutionally mandated “welfare of the people clause” health services should be government subsidized, but Ron Paul opposes them and thinks it is a violation of “taxpayers’ conscience” for government funds to provide those health services.
Well, we don’t get to choose that way, Mr. Paul.
It is a violation of my values that governments sponsor the death penalty or spend trillions on armies, but I don’t get to opt out. Mr. Paul doesn’t get that option either.
Ron Paul wants to punish the poor, all poor, by taking away benefits because they clash with his values. Nobody is being forced to get abortions or family planning or the day after pill, but Paul is against those things so he tries to legislate it in such a way to make it impossible for the 99% who cannot afford expensive health care services.
I could go on and on pointing out problems with Ron Paul, without ever mentioning Paul’s racism. There are so many issues where Paul is inconsistent.
Paul wants to impose his Christian values through legislation. Paul cannot hide from his record of opposing constitutionally mandated government obligations, substituting his Christian religious beliefs instead of following the constitution.

By the way, I wanted to research Ron Paul’s positions on some issues and went to VoteSmart.org where I found this statement:Ron Paul refused to tell citizens where he stands on any of the issues addressed in the 2012 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart, national media, and prominent political leaders.

Asoka, if you strongly believe in the value of stem cell research, you can band together with those of like mind and finance it. In fact, companies are doing exactly that. Invest in them. But, please don’t force me to pay for it. I also don’t want to pay for your or your children’s food, shelter, education, and medical care. Sorry, but I have a hard enough time paying for my own kids needs without you forcing me to pay for yours as well. Accordingly, I don’t expect you or anyone else to pay for my needs and my children’s needs.
Last time I checked, there was no constitutionally mandated right to stem cell research nor was there a mandate for government-sponsored abortions.

I see you are predicting serious social unrest in America. I just can’t see it myself. Americans are too fat and too unhealthy to brave the elements, physical harm and police brutality to make their voices heard. They will do as they have been doing: moving to tent cities and dying quietly in obscurity. The only wildcard is all the guns that these fools own. Maybe they will use them, but I suspect it isn’t going to happen in any organized way. It will continue to be random crackpots going postal and shooting up fast food restaurants, welfare offices and schools.
Realize too that the police state is expanding rapidly here. The NDAA was the latest most visible example. Don’t pooh pooh FEMA camps either. Yes, there are no FEMA camps, but have you seen HR 645 (govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645)? It aims to set up internment camps on military bases for US citizens, allowing the president to declare states of emergency for fairly ambiguous reasons. While not run by FEMA per se, if the bill passes, these will be “FEMA camps” without question. Another reason we won’t see any meaningful social unrest here: the protesters will be swept away instantly to Abu Ghraib America.
America is obviously in terminal decline (Thank GOD!) To gauge its speed, I’m watching carefully the international move to sell oil in something other than US dollars. It seems trivial, until you realize that every other nation has to sell something to the US to get US dollars with which to buy oil. It’s the source of our hegemonic power. We’ve behaved brutishly enough now that there is a serious effort afoot to end this hegemony. I believe it will be successful and when it is, America will turn instantly into a third-world banana republic that more powerful nations shove around with impunity. I expect America to fight this movement tooth and claw, making it a decline by degrees. Like the Romans, our decline will be slow and unstoppable and spread over many years.
Happy New Year everyone!!!

“Think of them grooming their mules in the summer twilight.”
The drawback to plowing behind a horse is that the view never improves. And, The Horror! Staring at a politician all day? Terrifying!
BTDT, seventy years ago, but then I thought it was neat. My grandfather undoubtedly had read Tom Sawyer…

Ron Paul believes he is the State and that he can legislate his religious values. For example, Paul supported The Defense of Marriage Act which prohibits the U.S. government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even if a state recognizes the marriage. This is a violation of civil rights, pure discrimination, to recognize one type of marriage (the kind approved of by the Christian Church), but deny others the same right.
Hmmm, isn’t Paul for states’ rights, but he is passing that kind of Federal legislation?
Then Paul co-sponsored the Marriage Protection Act, which would have barred federal judges from hearing cases pertaining to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Nice. Supposedly Paul is a big on the Constitution, but if there is a chance his interpretation of the Constitution might be challenged, he tried to prevent any court challenges, to limit the freedom of the courts to hear cases.
But, wait, isn’t Paul pro-liberty, pro-civil discussion, and pro-law. I guess not when that interferes with the imposition of his own religious values on the citizenry.
Paul once was in the house of a homosexual (must have been a big donor), needed to do number 1 or number 2, but refused to use the bathroom!
This is a doctor? This is an open mind? This is a person knowledgeable about the spread of certain communicable diseases?
No, it is Ron Paul’s homophobia, pure and simple.
Ron Paul is a bigot. A dangerous bigot who will use his power as a congressman to write FEDERAL legislation to project and protect his own religious values.

herbivor, if you strongly believe in the value of organized violence for national defense or state violence to execute criminals, you can band together with those of like mind and finance it. Invest in those companies, like Xe or Corrections Corporation of America. But, please don’t force me to pay for it.

@asoka
I wouldn’t want to use the bathroom of a homo, either. Who knows what’s crawling around in there … whatever, I think that one of Ron Paul’s redeeming qualities is that he doesn’t think it necessary to ruin marriage for the heteros by letting the gays needlessly marry.
Marriage is an institution designed for family security – to force a hetero couple who are physically and mentally very unlike each other to try and work out whatever of many issues arise, and do so for the sake of the family. What’s a homo got to salvage? Nothing, except some wounded homo pride. Can you imagine marriage what counseling for homos would be like? “Go home and suck it up, ya queers!”
God damn, I wish the gays would get back to what they do best and leave the rest of us the fuck alone.

Accordingly, I don’t expect you or anyone else to pay for my needs and my children’s needs.
===================
Right.
Do you have a need for clean water? Do you have a need to have uncontaminated food? Do you have the need for well-paved roads. I am paying for that on your behalf. And you are paying for it on my behalf.
We have a social contract. We have a Constitution and the Constitution clearly states it is the government’s responsibility to provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.
That means if the populace is threatened by disease, it is not your place, or your children’s place, to do the research, discover a cure, build the factory to produce medicine, etc. It is the government’s responsibility to provide for the well being of its citizens. Dead citizens make lousy soldiers and lousy taxpayers.
Check it out: Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution. Says the government can RAISE TAXES (gasp!) and SPEND (gasp!) to help out those in need. You don’t need to get together with your neighbors and raise the funds yourself. The Constitution has it covered.

I remember Ron Paul from the 1970’s. I was a gold bug then (not now), and he interested me at first because he was for the gold standard. I read up about him at that time, and although I can’t remember the details, I do remember many people considered him a right-wing conservative nut job, with racial overtones and far-out views. I didn’t dislike him, but I felt uneasy thinking about his potential rise in politics.
Today, I still feel the same way. The more mature me sees him as a frail 75 year-old who will never be able to overcome government resistence to real change. He’s not going to get elected, and I certainly wouldn’t vote for him.
I know 2012 is an election year, which means the general election will be a big topic. But elections are meaningless to me. If only people could look outside the pomp and circumstance, use perspective and history, and see the big picture. Then they would realize that it makes no difference – really – who gets elected. That’s why elections are really a joke. They’re only a useful tool for those who really have the power.
I despise most of what Vlad writes, but I have to agree with him on this subject: The average person shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Voting, as constituted in the US is disfunctional to society. Unfortunately, I can’t think of an acceptable alternative. A benevolent dictatorship?
Anarchy? This is a good subject for discussion, I think. I still maintain that the only way real change for the good will occur in reality is through massive uprising.

Marriage is an institution designed for family security
————-
Damn straight! And guess who has families? Queers! They can adopt and raise children and guess what? The children are just like children raised by the heteros.

There is no evidence that the development of children with lesbian or gay parents is compromised in any significant respect relative to that among children of heterosexual parents in otherwise comparable circumstances. SOURCE: bit.ly/uGgVd1

And before anyone asks: Ron Paul voted YES on banning gay adoptions.
So much for freedom.
So much for liberty.
Once again Ron Paul uses his power as a Republican legislator to try to impose his backward religious values on everyone.
Ron Paul is the American Taliban.

Fork, I love women and am not physically attracted to men, but, Christ, why be bigoted? I don’t worry about ny masculinity, so I’m not threatened by gay men. I’ve been hit on several times by men over the years, but all I do is say “I don’t play that game”, and they go away. I don’t worry about why they picked me; I guess I had enough success with women not to worry about whether I projected gayness. And if gays want to be married, who cares? It’s not my business, and it shouldn’t be yours.

Asoka, I mostly agree with you about Ron Paul, and can understand why you don’t like him. But you and I both know he’s not going to get elected. So I request that since you’ve adequately explained why he’s not a good choice for president – several times – that you stop further postings on the subject. You’re mind contains multiples and I’d like to read your posts about the rest of them.

Bill,
It’s not you that gets to vote. 300 million people in the yankee fascist empire and none of them really gets to vote. The only people that get to vote are those people in the shadow government who select the people that you think you will get to vote for. Those same people will then rubber-stamp the legislation written for them by the shadow government, often without even bothering to read it. So your wish for a benevolent dictatorship has already long been implemented. You wanted the smiling fascists, and that’s what you got. Enjoy!

Not true.
The phrase “United States” was originally treated as plural—e.g., “the United States are”—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular—e.g., “the United States is”—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom “these United States”.[16] -wiki
It’s only with 14th Amendment that the US empire is born.

I fully concur with the totality of your sentiments about Ron Paul. His opinions about our foreign military bases, giving foreign aid when millions suffer in our own back yard, and especially his views on auditing the Federal Reserve make him the ONLY candidate that isn’t some cruel parody of earnestness.
Yes, RP has his problems but I’ve got to say that if he runs against Obama I’m voting for Paul. Obama hasn’t made one statement against his Wall Street crony-crooks and that defines his presidency. He’s as effete, as feckless, as Calvin Coolidge.
E.

Ron Paul is fucked up on government issued voter ID (voter suppression), too.
Of course, as a big fan of pre-Civil Rights Act, I suppose Paul wouldn’t mind a poll tax requirement to vote.
Here is yet one more Ron Paul inconsistency:
WHEREBY: Voting is a fundamental right guaranteed by the USA Constitution and,
WHEREBY: Ron Paul is a constitutionalist seeking to protect the Constitution,
THEREFORE: Why isn’t Ron Paul calling out the GOP on their drive to disenfranchise voters through the use of restrictive voter ID laws?
If Ron Paul really takes the US Constitution seriously, he knows that the government — all levels from local to federal — derives its power from the People, from the consent of the governed.Our right to vote is inherent in being a citizen of this country and it does not, should not, hinge on the state I reside in issuing me a voter ID.
Where’s Ron Paul’s outrage over what is clearly an assault by the GOP on one of our most fundamental Constitution rights in a representative democracy, the right to vote and have our will be heard?
So much for the Constitution. I’m telling you the guy is a Texas Republican life-long politician and a Christian fundamentalist.

hey bahston, happy new yeah…considering the puppet show that is mainstream electoral politics, and demonstrated vulnerability of electronic ballots to rigging; consider the write in candidate K-dog: it doesn t matter who we write in, the point is to actually choose someone, with accountability after the fact…he may be persuaded to list his platform again, but from what i have gathered, most here (at least those who aren t racist or obvious trolls)would agree with at least a majority of his stated values- i envision what for all practical purposes would be an overt coup- which would force TPTB to recognize Us, The People- or try to maintain their hold, thereby throwing off the false mantle they ve worn out…think about it, as far as viability goes: how long would it take to go viral in this age? otherwise, we re left with laying here and taking the rape; or fighting in the streets- neither of which is desirable to the rational being

Yeah, I guess Buck Stud got me started by saying I was focused on the “solitary” issue of race regarding Ron Paul, when my comments were much broader.
I agree I have made my point, though there are dozens of inconsistencies I have not mentioned, dozens of votes that give the lie to Ron Paul being a “libertarian”
Out of respect for your request I will try to limit my posts related to Ron Paul.
Thank you for your polite request.

asoka said:
“Creationism has no scientific evidence to back it up, but Ron Paul wants to let individual school boards decide to teach creationism. That is the logical fruit of libertarianism?”
Yes, that is libertarianism. For better or worse, governance occurs at the state and local level, except for a narrow range of functions very explicitly assigned to the federal government.
I’m not a libertarian myself, but considering what a rotten job the federal government does when it gets involved in education policy, I’d say they are right that education policy best left to local governance. No doubt school districts would get it wrong here and there, but when the federal government controls the agenda and gets it wrong, then the whole system goes down, like the old series wired christmas lights where when one bulb goes out the whole string goes dead.

Hey, asoka is right to criticize Ron Paul although his particular criticisms are relatively nonsensical.
Paul’s real failing is that his obsessive devotion to liberty blinds him to the fact that in some cases there are genuine tradeoffs between liberty and other legitimate societal interests such as security.
Being a utopian, he can’t accept the possibility that there are any tradeoffs to a totallly libertarian form of government.
One even asoka might be able to grasp is the notion that in a totally libertarian society those unable to care for themselves will be better off than they would under let us say a nation with governmental social programs.
Libertarians pride themselves on being driven by reason, but I believe they are in fact often irrational because their model of governance is based on an abstract theory rather than on the empirical realities that have been learned during the evolution of human civilization.
(the new crises facing us that Kunstler so graphically underscores do show that our ability to learn from experience is imperfect, but I would still take that over abstract theory whether it is that of theory-based fanaticism whether it be that of Libertarianism or Progressivism or some other kind of political or religious cult.

Mika,
I didn’t want a benevolent dictatorship, I was questioning whether it was an improvement over what we have now. What we do have now is not benevolent. And maybe I should have been more precise – I meant a benevolent dictator.

Do you remember the scene in the movie “Boogie Nights” when the porn movie producer comes home in the afternoon to find his wife humping a stranger in his bedroom bed? Irritated and perplexed he exclaims to his wife:
“What the FUCK are you doing?!”
His wife replies: “What the FUCK does it look like I’m doing?”
If Michelle where to come home one afternoon to the White House to find Barack humping a staffer (probably a male staffer) the exchange would probably go as follows:
Michelle: “What the FUCK are you doing?!”
Barack: “It’s not what it looks like, Michelle! That’s not what I’m about.”
Obama’s signing statement appended to the NDAA, which gives the US President the power to detain Americans indefinately without trial:
“My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens … Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation,” wrote Obama.

Don’t get me wrong – I have no problem with civil unions but it’s important to keep the institution of marriage intact otherwise it’ll be “why get married?” and the notion of a nuclear family will be lost. I guess it doesn’t matter, really, now that adoptions are allowed – I agree that in such an unfortunate event the kids should be in a stable environment.
Marriage is not a religious artifact but a tribal one – just wasn’t called marriage then.

If you want more, try these 2 books: “Boomerang” by Michael Lewis, a short entertaining book and “No One Would Listen” by Harry Markopolos about the failure of the warned SEC to stop the Madoff Ponzi scheme.
Gerald Celente says if your money is not in your hands (or under the mattress), its not your money, it belongs to the banks or the brokerage firm, subject to confiscation. Probably not a bad idea to try to wrestle your money from their hands while you still can.

What we do have now is not benevolent.
==
It certainly is not.
You need to go backwards to go forwards. What you need to do is secede. Individually, you need to secede from the fascist corporate grid. And as the Nation State of Massachusetts, you need to secede from the fascist US empire.

Why not have some real criterion about who votes. Or how about degrees of citizenship? People who vote must pass a test, yes just like driving. A knowledge of history and politics and an essay showing their understanding of the system.
The highest level could be more difficult and also involve a record of service in the military or elsehwere. And obviously not on welfare and with a clean record.
The third and lowest leve, the local, could be open to all citizens who can prove who they are and that they speak English. They’d make terrible decisons but hopefully not screw things up too much. It’s good for people to have some say over their lives.

Holy Cow? Unholy! And look at how they’re bringing Junior Miss along now. And the Bush’s have a very charismatic son of Jeb in the wings – very charismatic and very good Latin looks. Fully bilingual. He’s a shoe in in two decades. The Elite must have a sense of humor. I mean Jeb is a well spoken, normal man. But they gave us George Jr.
Anyway, glad I didn’t offend. I always look forward to your posts as well.

You have alienated Buck, a man who revered you, all because of your cavalier lies and games. Not to mention your mindless dismissal of the dangers associated with the new proposal that will enable the State to lock up any and all American Citizens it desires. What the hell is wrong with you? You are not fit to fasten Ron Paul’s sandal.

Another way to interpret Paul’s response to the question about evolution is to see it as strictly a politician’s way of avoiding having to answer the question in a way that would alienate some of his base.
He didn’t say he believed in creationism. Instead he stated what is after all, a truth. Evolution is a theory and then he said he didn’t accept it. It depends on what “it” is. He could have been saying he didn’t believe it was just a theory, but rather he believed it was beyond the realm of theory but was in fact fact.

world often I am not a feminist, but I do not think silly man more fickle than women, it is not that I ask: Who does not lust?

in today’s society, Chinese women have put off the apron, wear, woman, whether political status,Chemise Boss Pas Cher, economic status or family status have been greatly improved people from time to time to hear However, in the promotion of gender equality in modern society, the men talked about the apricot out of the wall

Do not lament: Moral Degeneration, Renxinbugu. Today, cohabitation has become outdated act, one-night stand will become a thing of the past, homosexual can get married, then why not a woman to find a lover?

rolling stone, is the universal human psychological, social life is a common phenomenon, whether it is male or female, have love affairs of nature. If you put aside the moral, ethical reputation and so these constraints, every woman will subconsciously feel that they need a lover, from the human point of view or physiological point of view, a woman really needs a lover.

lover is a flavoring agent, it can make a woman get back the feeling of love.

ordinary life, boring day, in addition to find a lover, what can a woman tired of the daily necessities of their own again as in the fairy tale princess? Lover to a woman always has the feeling of love, lover will not let a woman cooking dishes, her lover will always say: of cigarettes, the smell of sweaty feet a little rest on the coffee table, turned over the newspapers, watching TV lazy to, from time to time on a roar: br> know better than her husband, the romantic lover.

When the woman took her husband to a full moon full moon, the husband will be impatient and said: Baby, tonight’s moon water, like you … old couple, and spend money all day you know! will be pleasantly surprised, always will say:

lover always satisfy a woman’s vanity.

lover will accompany you on the day shopping street, watching the assortment of goods, lover will not stop saying: look good, try it? will excuse away: ;

lover will always respect a woman’s feeling.

When finished washing a woman put on sexy underwear, full of tenderness to her husband issued a message of love when her husband was frowning, said: sleepy. > lover is always best to listen to a woman who her lover is always a woman known to have been.

woman is required to understand and support, but her husband is sometimes not the best object. The love between husband and wife in real life are often devoid gradually, little time to communicate, but also a lack of calm atmosphere. Women are often dissatisfied with her husband would be: the lack of humor, her husband, the husband is not diligent, the husband is not considerate, people simply had enough, you can talk to whom these words to it? Work and life in distress who can understand? All he can talk to her lover, because there is no contradiction between the common, but can accommodate each other, because it is not a roof, but can communicate. The face of your troubles, your lover will not be too tired, not enough support to call you all day, and only softly to comfort you … …

; lover, let us love living there a touch of the rainbow; lover, let’s dull life becomes extraordinary.

lover with her husband does not have all the advantages. If a woman never had a lover, or do not mind a lifetime lover, then she is not a complete woman.

since the beginning of the world, ancient teachings again and again: husband’s story, see a woman sewage stagnation, hoping to teach a crash thoracotomy faster!

good news is that for the modern woman, crying and shouting is over the age marry, with the women’s socio-economic status and level of education improved, and its pursuit of independence and the desire to self-realization continue to strengthen, Men and women face the wrath of disdain, we have to say once again: a woman, then why not find a lover? you want to have a lover, then you look at your specific situation and the actual level of the!

JHK said:
Just look at how we behave, from the cloakrooms of Congress to the piercing parlors of West Hollywood to the 7-Elevens of suburban Maryland: a nation of thieves, racketeers, reality TV sluts, wannabe road warriors, light-fingered gangsta-boyz, and crybabies living in an anomie-drenched decrepitating demolition derby landscape of failure.
*****************************************************************
I love when you get on a roll like this, Jim. Of course, there are many pollyannas here on CFN who find your grousing unjust or, God forbid, “boring”. I’m amazed at how you can sum up all of the goofy, phony, one-dimensional, TV-induced personae in the US social space in one divinely crazy sentence.
Even in the rank-and-file US proletariat, which I encounter each year in my Xmas visit to Pennsylvania, everybody has some potential “racket” in mind. An ex-teacher I know was trying to tout Citibank stock as a “whisper stock” and I just giggled.
After two huge crashes in a decade, we still haven’t lost the ridiculous “wealth without work” ethos of the 1990s. It’s still alive and well even if their 401Ks are in the intensive care unit.
I truly believe in the AA definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome”. By this sober definition, most of America is still MASSIVELY NUTS. Keep on grousing, Jim. Don’t gild the lily … EVER.
E.

I think the fact that Ron Paul has been reelected, what, 8 or 10 times shows that he’s got plenty of realpolitik. All politicians claim to ascribe to some doctrine but come election time they get more practical because America, for all its failings, does NOT like doctrines that are either too extreme or too utopian.
As dumb as America has gotten, even America wouldn’t do something as stupid as the euro experiment which is a typical brainchild of the densest utopian “progressive” thinking for which Europeans have a fatal attraction. Duh, right, … Spain and Italy have sooooo much in common with Finland and Germany. Sigh.
E.

Dr- snuze said “Realize too that the police state is expanding rapidly here. The NDAA was the latest most visible example. Don’t pooh pooh FEMA camps either. Yes, there are no FEMA camps, but have you seen HR 645 (govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645)? It aims to set up internment camps on military bases for US citizens, allowing the president to declare states of emergency for fairly ambiguous reasons. ”
HR 645 basically keeps large military bases open and providing JOBS to the LOCAL ECONOMY as military active duty manpower is slacking off by converting military property to civilian large-scale emergency planning.
This is not your paranoid FEMA camp scenario. What this is is simply a continuance of government plan for any number of probable disasters. Exactly the kind of thing only governments can do. Methinks the libertarians will not be sending helicopters to the flood/earthquake/nuclear-accident victims.

“Buuuuuut only if Ron Paul would be elected….” BLAAAARGH!
-Who invited these snot-nosed children to our tailgate party at the end of civilization?
News flash, kids: Ron Paul will never be elected president. Ever.

Welles says “lifes great in brazil, roasted two pigs on the huge churrasqueira barbeque pit, plus giant slabs of beef, simply marvellous, and all topped off with icy kold beer, wonderful jokes and light accordion music.
everyone has work and enuf money, and life just gets better here…oh wait, doesn~t fit the doom meme, scratch evrythyng i said”
You know, whats funny is how fucking clueless you are. I mean, you don’t even know. You’re an American, in Brazil, being a clueless American.
It doesn’t take brains, guts, or imagination to see how degraded the environment is all over Brazil.
Go to g.co/maps/t3snk
Welles’ pig dinner is the smug superiority of the depravity for ignorance. Mmmm. Bet it was greasy and delicious!

My prediction, borrowed from fairewinds associates’ Arnie Gundersen, is that a load of tuna or salmon will set off the radiation detectors at some U.S. port and the cat will be out of the bag as far as the worsening Fukushima nuclear meltdown results are concerned.

Should that accidentally happen, the radiation detectors will be quietly removed, or loads of fish meticulously excluded from routine scanning.
We can’t have a little death and disease getting in the way of good clean business transactions, now can we?

E.,
Sorry you had to go all the way to Pennsyltucky to get a secret pep-talk on those piles of free money to be had for the dreaming! ;o)
Hey, just heard on Marketplace (Fake-it-place) that junk Euro bonds are a GOOD INVESTMENT! Now, SOMETIMES they might blow up in your face, but since they’re high-risk, they CAN pay big dividends. Buy in now; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Jeezis jumped-up Kreyest on-a-crutch, the grifters will never stop.

Bill,
I’m glad you got asoka. to stop his overposting about Ron Paul. That was going to be my second post last night, but we were called out of town for a minor family emergency before I could get to it.
The casual observer, reading the thread yesterday, would have concluded that CFN was nearly 100% against Ron Paul – because he was a Racist, Christian, blah, blah.
Of course the huge majority of the anti-RP posts were from asoka., trying to force his will on the CFN thread at large. There were a couple of others, including yours – but they got lost in the barrage of asoka-think.
RP probably won’t be elected. And, as Bustin mentioned, he’ll probably die if he does get elected, or even comes close. But, RP has my vote, for four big reasons.
1. Ron Paul points out the problem of the “imperial presidency,” better than any one else that we are, ever again, likely to have even campaigning for the office. Our system is deranged, as is. We have BushII elected on the flimsiest of hanging chads – and with a minority of the popular National vote. Nevertheless, BushII takes us ALL careening off into an extreme neo-con direction, just ’cause he is president.
One man should NOT be that important to the political direction of 313,000,000 souls. It’s crazy that national direction can change radically, with the election of a new Dear Leader, as though we were a bunch of North Koreans. Ron Paul would put more power and responsibility back on House and Senate, and less on Executive policy. This would be a very good thing.
2. Ron Paul is not Romney.
3. Ron Paul is not Gingrich.
4. Ron Paul is not Bachmann

Please see my latest analysis on OpEdNews.com that backs up the dire straitsof the average American.
“It’s Official: Gov Stats Shows the Middle Class is Dead”http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Middle-Class-Vanishes-by-Chaz-Valenza-120101-954.htmlts

White Iraq War Vet fights against Negro Terror on bus. YouTube is changing everything folks. We don’t believe your media anymore, we have our own. Sorry that means the end of Political Correctness. We have our own heroes now – like this Man.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=10789

“And as the Nation State of Massachusetts, you need to secede from the fascist US empire.”
-mika, to Bill of BeanTown-
You’re right, Mika. Of course, we tried that in Georgia back in the 1860’s and it didn’t work out all that well for us. You are also correct that US Empire became inevitable with the conclusion of the War for Southern Independence.
Which lead to intervention in WWI against the Germans, leading to German reparations, leading to Hitler, leading to WWII, leading to the military-industrial complex, leading to the neo-cons, leading to – –
– Leading to something less than ideal, that’s for sure.
If there is no God in charge, we humans have really screwed ourselves up, with our unintended causes and effects.

Stop being so negative. Stop living in the past. The United States must break up that the People may live. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. If the Founders had been on their game a little bit more, they would have provided the protocols for leaving the Union. And a Union that cannot be left is no Union at all but a Tyranny. I mean doesn’t membership in a Union connote that it’s voluntary?

I was watching CNBC this morning, the first “trading day” of 2012. According to the talking heads on that network everything is looking pretty good for the upcoming year and the bad times are behind us. Contrary to what jim says Europe is fundamentally sound and will be on the rebound in short order. And the president of Gulf oil talked about the tremendous amount of natural now available thru fracking and how fleets of semi trucks will be soon rolling strictly natural gas.
In short, the future is bright. All you have to do is believe.
I notice on XCountry satellite radio more and more songs about issues we discuss on this site, even a Woody Guthrie tune now and then.
–WSP7

“HAPPY NEW YEAR and A FOND FAREWELL
I Award my ‘PEAK BULLSHIT BUSTERS AWARD 2011’ to Eleuthero for this, In response to Absalom:”
-anti soak-
Anti soak,
Man, I’m gonna miss you. You’re the only anti-abortion, pro-vegetarian, pro-immigration reduction person that I have known.
For you to put all that in one package should prove to everyone, that individuals are not packages of demographic desire – to be sliced and diced by Corporate Marketing and the Political Elites.
I won’t contact you on Facebook, ’cause I’m not on Facebook. Plus, except for immigration – we wouldn’t have much to talk about in the real world. Plenty to argue about, though, I’d bet.
And as one blog addict to another, I won’t try to talk you out of quitting “cold turkey.”
If you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.
Best of luck to you, asia.
P2C

“The United States must break up that the People may live. We can do it the easy way or the hard way.” -vlad-
You may be right about this, but it will never happen until all the oil, coal, and hope is exhausted, and US population drops back under 200 million.
And we’re Americans, Vlad, we never do ANYTHING the easy way, politically speaking.

I’m watching Democracy Now, and reading this blog.
JHK weekly predicts that those screwed over by the system will focus on those responsible, while some of us predict that they will focus on those helpfully pointed out to them on Fox News.
Democracy Now reported on firebombings of Muslim and immigrant homes and gathering places, a veteran who shot and killed a park ranger, and wounded 3 others, an abortion clinic attacked in Florida, and the guy who firebombed cars in LA.
Meanwhile Vlad links to an unemployed veteran who took on three black guys.
Any Wall Street figures targeted?
Nah.

Peaceful non-cooperation is all that’s needed. Vote with your feet! You will never out gun them, but you can avoid, and persuade others to avoid conscripting in their army and institutions. Without their army and institutions their whole edifice of tyranny crumbles away, since they have no moral legs to stand on.

It is interesting that we believe that one man can make such a difference. And that we believe that electing a Dear Leader every four years is the epitome of democracy. And that some believe that invading other countries, destroying their infrastructure, and killing millions of people is fine, as long as they then get to vote for a Dear Leader of their own.
Actually, you can see that the Clinton/Bush/Obama presidencies are nothing but a continuum of creeping fascism and the enthronement of corporate power, along with the dispowerment of the people.
Elections are nothing but a distraction, and the new boss is the same as the old, but with different rhetoric.
Which manages to fool most of the people, most of the time.

Yeah, prog, I’m pretty sure that he’s already back, in the guise of a Canadian, seekingplacetolivesafely, or something like that.
Misspellings, grammar errors, and a right wing attitude – sure, he’s not the only one with those particular faults (actually, it seems to be the right wing trifecta), but it seems suspicious to me that shortly after the big Farewell, another one shows up.

Yes, well today I heard on Morning Joe that Goldman Sachs says our unemployment will climb to 9% in the next few months. Gee I wonder what the bookmaker odds were on that premise to make it so. You know they’re always right. And just in case they’re not, there’s always bets against their claim. How can they lose?
That’s what I love most about our media. They are treating GS as if its a fine, upstanding lawful entity that does solid analysis of our economy. Oh and they make money the old fashioned-way, of course.
The fourth estate is like a flea on the back of a larger creature (the system) that has no idea the creature is a cancer.
Somebody on this blog mentioned cognitive dissonance–this is a prime example of the realities not jibing. It amazes me that they think people aren’t wondering what’s wrong with this picture. This is what makes listening to MSM so hilarious. It’s pure entertainment.
Sanitorium is doing well with the Evangelicals. He’s all about that home schooling where evolution is never discussed.
Gots to lower that deficit, you know so let’s slash the “entitlements” so the entitled can get everything and let’s go Iran. That’s some religion he’s got there.
I would love it if someone would ask these guys how they can in one stroke complain about the deficit and start the drum rolling for more more more, war.
It’s A-OK to give $trillions more taxpayer money to the private contractors– just don’t ask for a social contract.

“…is it not a wonder that some poor swindled Grampa with nothing left to live for has not tossed a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Wall Street watering hole known to be frequented by banking poobahs? Perhaps this sort of action awaits us in 2012.”
Right on the mark. One reason the PTB are so desperate to keep people watching foooootball and dancing with the stars is that they’re afraid of many of the masses waking up to their being swindled screwed and raped, with the above result on a mass scale. I suspect that here it comes.
FINALLY.
lock and load.

Ha, that’s funny Vlad. Actually, I questioned Asoka’s “move” a few weeks ago. If you’ll recall, Asoka was taking a break from CFN and he was going to see how long he could refrain from posting – more or less. And like most people who pronounce their intention to take a break from CFN, he didn’t last long. So to camouflage and deflect attention away from his clearly flaccid resolve, he announced that he now resides in a new and exotic land and makes his CFN posts on the fly as technology accommodates.
So while I do indeed revere Asoka’s agile, fluid mind, I also think he is far too casual in tossing about the racist tag. His disagreements over policy and ideology quite often degenerate into accusations of racism, and with him pointing the finger. And more recently, the calm, serene Asoka has been resorting to profanity… maybe some of that Southern Hemisphere machismo has infected his online persona after all.

” Actually, you can see that the Clinton/Bush/Obama presidencies are nothing but a continuum of creeping fascism and the enthronement of corporate power, along with the dispowerment of the people.”
It would be interesting to take an advance look into the history books written a hundred years from now. And I don’t think history will contradict your above assertion. It’s really quite simple: big corporate money has corrupted the system. By way of analogy the 99% are only able to afford a public defender, and even they are being axed from the public dole. The 1%, on the other hand, are able to afford the most accommodating Govt money can buy.
I think I’m done with voting, or at least voting for the two main parties.

Intelligent design is one of those theories believed by the unintelligent. There is no evidence for it. NONE. That’s why it is stupid. Clear enough for you? I put it up there (or down) with witchcraft, voodoo, and the like. It has no place in the schools. Keep it to yourself, please.
Atheism is only obvious if you’re not a brainwashed moron who believes any old thing someone tells you with a straight face.
And who is this ‘us’ you keep mentioning? I’m pretty sure you don’t speak for anyone but yourself.

Since I currently live in northwestern Mexico (formerly Southern California), I have to agree about the invasion of my former homeland by Mexican nationals and the effects on my immediate surroundings. My daughter used to work at a nearby legal office and one of her co-workers was Hispanic but a U.S. citizen. This woman’s husband is an illegal Mexican immigrant. All five (5) of her children were born here and the hospital bills were paid for by local taxpayers. Since the woman’s paperwork lists her as an unmarried woman with 5 kids, she receives Section 8 housing and food stamps while her husband is employed full time but gets paid under the table and pays no income taxes. With free food stamps and medical care and paying no taxes, the couple have saved up quite a bundle. The woman just informed my daughter that she and hubby will soon be taking their bundle of U.S. dollars and moving back to Mexico after they have purchased a business there. While I’m happy that these 7 people will be leaving here soon, they are taking a bundle of money with them (so generously donated by my friends and neighbors. P.S. As soon as I retire in the very near future, I’m going to be heading out far north away from Mexifornia.

Does Democracy Now ever cover Black Terror against Whites? I thought not. I’ll stick to YouTube.
What the Veteran did (and no, he did not start it) was more important than anything he did in Iraq: he defended his own people

Briefly: the fossil record is missing the many intermediary types that would be required to go from one species to another in most cases. Thus they began to postulate “jumps” or mutations. Trouble is that most mutations are harmful. And the good ones are too few to have ever covered the distance that Evolution did in fact cover. So the jumps or mutations must have been more than arbitrary or merely caused by radiation or whatever. There has been an unseen hand guiding the whole thing. More unseen but more real than Adam Smith’s guiding hand – which was none at all.
Turk try. Your IQ isn’t low – it’s your dogmatism and hate that make you so dumb.

I had no idea the term Black Terror (a new one on me) deserved capitalization. It sounds like some kind of dastardly villain from a Spiderman comic. Watch out for the Black Terror!
We simply call it crime, Vladdy. Terror is an emotional state. In general, the T word is for simpletons and rubes, so I’m not surprised to see you tossing it around.

“There has been an unseen hand guiding the whole thing.”
Is this the same unseen hand that causes you to post your drivel here, week after week?
Speaking of hands, someone should slap you upside your head. Maybe it’ll knock out some of the stupid (though I wouldn’t count on it).

A sickening story – one of many millions. We are sinking by the bow and the list in now 30 degrees. Man the lifeboats. There aren’t enough sir. Then it’s every man for himself. And the devil take the hindmost. Keep the poor locked in storage in any case.
And the band played on. This time it should play Waltzing Mathilda – the real version and now the PC one. And at the end, Nearer My God to Thee just like last time.

It’s gone far beyond that now. Black Crime is becoming large and systemic – even systematic with the use of cell phones and social media as a way or organization. Terror is an appropriate word and it will be met as it was in some of the better neighborhoods of New Orleans with like meaure.
Of course you answer my posts with slander and ridicule – what else can you do?

“Of course you answer my posts with slander and ridicule – what else can you do?”
Oh, a whole lot. You betcha. It is just more fun to ridicule you rather than provide some dry retort. Plus, it is really easy to make fun of you, being that you’re such a pompous windbag.

“Black Crime is becoming large and systemic”
Again with the silly capitalization.
Crime rates are down across the board. The murder rate is half of what it was in the early nineties. Ditto for most other crimes.
But keep making stuff up for us. At least you’re kind of amusing in your nutty windbaggery.

“the use of cell phones and social media as a way or organization”
Everyone uses social media sites and cell phones to organize everything now. Do you expect criminals to use fax machines or telegrams? They use the same technology as everyone else. Big deal.

Easy answer. There is no “we”, just a collection of personal, selfish interests, so attempting to pick out a completely coherent agenda among the various happenings is fruitless. For instance, it was mostly the corporate CEOs and their boards that offloaded our manufacturing capacity to China. Why? Simple. More profits in laying off expensive American workers and hiring Chinese (virtual) slave labor. It isn’t like there is some conspiracy that determines everything our nation does. The world doesn’t work that way.

OZONE: Grazi for the Hedges Book TV interview. I enjoy some of his stuff, as I haven’t come across many other Liberal writers with the intellectual honesty and knowledge to criticize the failings of the Liberal class in the U.S. as he does. Although, I think he ultimately raises the virtues of Liberal thought to untenable heights, and I’m not sure that he differs much from any number of similarly well read and rhetorically trained Conservative ideologues. Newt Gingrinch comes to mind as another literary goober who thinks his own understanding of history provides him patent to a set of moral truths to which he’s happy to sell subscriptions. This to me is just the commoditization of opinions, reducing the marketplace of ideas metaphor to an idea marketplace, where someone else’s thoughts about the world are simply sold to consumers. Diversity of OPINION is confused for diversity of THOUGHT in today’s consumer culture. Guys like this use covert authority to lead their adherents on a never ending goose chase of historic revisionism and straight over the cliff in my view. But I must admit that I’m one of those mean, intolerant sorts who think people are not entitled to their own OPINIONS about reality, which are dangerously subject to misinterpretation and whimsy.
While a bit unrelated, I thought I’d include this link: youtube.com/watch?v=Y9_-IeDucFo
This debate between Sam Harris and Chris Hedges I think better characterizes the impasse of people who rely only on history and rhetoric to substantiate their opinions. While both speakers provide convincing defenses of their positions, I don’t think they make any real progress in settling the debate or furthering their respective causes for only the minds of people already inclined to believe one way or the other. In other words, there is no revelation of a “universal” truth contained in either perspective. Each only offer differing ways of seeing the world, instead of engaging it, even though they present certain “facts” to boost their claims. I must admit that I lean more to the side of the Sam Harris’s out there, but for reasons never sufficiently captured by any of his writing to date, which only exacerbate disagreements among believers and disbelievers.
For all the astuteness with which atheists describe the merits of scientific reason, they do a fukin’ piss poor job of describing that ANYONE can employ methodology to know reality for themselves, if only they learn the difference between a FACT and an IDEA.
Taken from one of my favorite science guy’s explanations, I like to describe the interaction between a car salesman and a buyer to emphasize such a difference, which is similar to how many who inhabit this blog come about their facts for how the world operates:
A buyer ventures onto a car dealer’s lot and spots a sexy red little sports car and asks for a test drive. While on the drive the salesman offers a lot of redundant facts about the vehicle: It has a rich muscle car history, is capable of 350 hp, has a vanity mirror on the driver’s side and passenger’s too, a stash spot in the center console for some weed, leather trim and so on. The salesman seated next to the driver glances at the speedometer, notices the buyer’s speed and says, “You’ll need roughly 165 yards to stop at the light ahead.” The buyer is taken by the feeling of the car, but he snaps out of his daydream soon enough to safely stop the car per the salesman’s instruction.
Ultimately the buyer decides to trade his clunker for a more affordable but used three-quarter ton machismo chariot instead. This ride too has the cultural symbolism, sex appeal monitors and horsepower too, only in a much heavier/deadlier package. And on the solo ride home while approaching an intersection light the buyer can only conjure the fact that what he last drove required 165 yards of stopping distance. He fails to recognize the relationship of speed to stopping distance plus the weight of his egotistical lead foot, allowing the vehicle to reach 100 mph. He over shoots the stoplight, crashes into a stopped school bus full of kids, and the ensuing explosion kills all involved. The salesman hears about the accident and decides to publish a list of facts for future car buyers in the interest of safely guiding future consumers:
Left to right:
1.)= Speed MPH.
2.)= Reaction Distance.
3.)= Braking Distance.
4.)= Total Stopping Distance
20 44 20 64
40 88 80 168
60 132 180 312
80 176 320 496
100 220 500 720
120 264 720 984
The list becomes a best seller on Amazon, and now lots of buyers can learn to safely drive themselves into the future based on the list of facts they can buy and keep in a back pocket. Most of them are extra diligent too and work to memorize facts, so they don’t have to bother with the cheat sheet. They actually become authorities on the facts and can convincingly persuade anyone willing to marvel at their brilliance. But the reality is that for all the time they’ve spent memorizing and selling facts, they’ve never come to KNOW the IDEA behind the facts and how to apply it in different situations. The idea is more powerful and easier to remember than redundant facts, but believing in the authority of fact distributors is more lucrative in our consumer culture.
Here’s Paul Lutus’ breakdown of the facts presented above:
“Can someone please tell me how the above list constitutes an improvement over:
(1) Braking distance (feet): bd = (s^2) / 20
Where s = the car’s speed in miles per hour. Then
(2) Reaction distance (feet): rd = t * s * 22/15
Where t = reaction time, and s = the car’s speed in miles per hour.”
=====================================
The IDEA reduced to a “universal” truth:
Total stopping distance (feet): d = (s^2) / 20 + s * t * 22/ 1
======================================
The question becomes how many people in the modern world invest the time to learn ideas instead of facts. How many people today are experts on history but can’t fix their own vehicles? These people don’t KNOW anything yet are experts of everything and nothing at once; hell, they can even write history books. The people who cling to those books are driving vehicles that they have no clue how to stop, and this is why our school buses full of kiddoes won’t escape the collision course with reality.
ABSALOM

LOL! Have you ever been to Georgia, Mika? I have relatives there. They took me to Stone Mountain for a light show. The whole thing was one big patriotic rah rah session for the good ‘ole USA.
In Georgia they don’t mind their sons and daughters going into the USA imperial army to become war criminals who invade countries and kill people they don’t know. In fact, in Georgia they think their sons and daughters should be given medals, called heroes, and everyone should say “Thank you for your service” upon their return.
I agree with you that peaceful non-cooperation is all that’s needed, but don’t look for a look of support for that idea in Georgia. They are more into kicking ass, shooting first, and defending that which is not defensible: THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE.

Nice treatise thar, Mister!
(Just checkin’ in; will peek at that vid soonly.)
Say now, let’s apply the last of the objective criteria (which just happens to be “subjective” damnit). It’s all about correctly/incorrectly JUDGING what that distance might be, ain’t it? Nothing can be applied until that guess is properly made. Is that result knowledge or “best guess”?
(Sorry, that’s a little besides your point, but sumpthin’ to throw around.)
(To my mind, comparing Newt and Chris is strange. Newt is strictly theoretical; Chris has seen a lot of people killed before his very eyes. Who would seem to have the more “realistic” worldview, in your opinion?
(Again, a bit beside your point, but perhaps an important distinction.)
Gotta git, thanks for the rumination material!
:o)

Nice rant, lbendet. One thing does puzzle me. GS says unemployment to climb to 9%, yet many here believe government statistics are manipulated. Why would the govt. manipulate the unemployment numbers to make the govt. look bad and hurt Obama’s chances of re-election? Shouldn’t they be manipulating the numbers to make govt. look good and help Obama?
Or maybe it is not the case that numbers are manipulated at all and the govt. is just telling it like it is: unemployment is going up. Maybe the govt. is just telling the truth, even though it hurts chances of reelection.
I know that is a scandalous assertion to make on CFN, but that is what I believe: there is no manipulation. If there was, they would manipulate the numbers in favor of govt. and not against their own interests.

I agree with you that peaceful non-cooperation is all that’s needed, but don’t look for a look of support for that idea in Georgia.
==
Hmm,..
Yeah, I’ve been to Georgia; on the way to Florida. And what Florida does, Georgia will follow.

I read an article in my daily paper yesterday about the low profit margins on flat screen TV’s these days. The knowledgeable salesmen on the sales floor are miserable with how much their commissions are shrinking. I spoke with one the other day when I was thinking I would need to scrap my 12 year old Sony. I recall him launching immediately into a pitch for needing to get all the other components that I would need for protection and best results.
I guess the factories that make these flat screens are too good at production, and apparently not overly concerned about distribution.
A wise man from the East visited the US during its manufacturing and agricultural hay days. He was shown around the farms, factories and the cities. His conclusion was when it comes to production you’re great, but when it comes to distribution: you suck, but probably not in those words.

Hey Ibendet who sez unemployment is going up? Just this morning talking heads on CNBC and Bloomberg, who must have different crystal balls than Jim, predict unemployment falling to 7 1/2% by summer. Don’t you understand, this is Oprahland, the economy is ‘in recovery’, and we are ‘healing’? It will take awhile, just like on the syndicated reality show ‘Intervention’, where the middle class, tattooed, pathetic, hopeless addict gets a new lease on life thru a firm hand and plenty of love and understanding.
All you need is love …
Love is all you need …
–WSP7

Yeah, Widespread
The truthiness is an amazing thing to behold. Numbers are all relative to what message you want to make.
Remember, be patient all, “Prosperity is just around the corner”….
(wait, wait, I know it’s coming..can’t you just feel the good times rolling? Just around the cor…)

I don’t get it. Why all the hatred and bitterness? Man, we got to pull together. We are in a world of shit up to our necks and some of you dudes are arguing about race and religion! Let me see, uh, lets keep up the same bullshit we have been following for ,maybe? the past 100,000 years. Grow the fuck up and get with the program!

Hey Asoka,
Happy New Year. You asked me about the free will VS determinism thing awhile back and I remarked that cause and effect are some basic rules of nature to which we’re all beholden. Your comment seems to be another way to pose the Nature VS Nurture question. That’s a settled debate: There is no opposition between the two, only conjunction. Recent biological discoveries demonstrate this better than any previous sociological studies do. That said, similar to way pilots fly a plain or sailors sail a boat, we do possess the ability to self-direct. It’s a matter of what tools we use to do so which makes a difference.
Hope this helps.
ABSALOM

Not very interesting predictions this year, perhaps Mr. K is losing faith in his oracular powers.
I’ve a few predictions for 2012 of my own…The star Betelgeuse will go supernova, temporarily relieving the earths energy shortage as solar energy output surges and people need less electric light. Everyone is happy for a while.South Korea inexplicably goes back to the 13th century. North Korea takes advantage of the situation and invades it’s Southern neighbor and forces it into the mid-twentieth century.
The Republican Party fails to agree a candidate for the presidential election and opts to support Barak Obama as a “National Unity Candidate”.
In order to keep up a facade of democracy of course a scapegoat, loony, “third party” candidate is needed. Charlie Sheen is tricked into running.
The plan almost backfire as many americans, confusing fact with fiction believe that Charlie’s father Martin Sheen was actually quite a successful president in the past.
Obama salvages the election running on the slogan “Charlie’s not like Marty, who was never really president anyway.”
Sheen still manages to win Alaska, Iowa and North Dakota.
Happy New Year

“My forcast trends for 2012 are KultureVulture and comapany get their own lives.”
KC has plenty to offer that doesn’t fit JHK’s shtik. So does Wage. So does 8thacre. So does…
If all you want is to be scared outta your shorts, then stick to JHK.
For my part, our relocalization-friendly business plan is expanding to the point that I barely have time to stop by CFN anymore, or even update my own blog. Plenty to talk about, no time to do so. But farmer’s markets in urban areas are grossing four-figure returns every weekend, if you can manage it, for those with worthy goods for sale. My wife and I are heading over the next energetic hump in our business model, gearing up our production capacity, moving from tens of units to hundreds of units, and hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars. ‘Bout time too. We’ve been financially stressed out, working on solutions befitting the energy descent pattern, for 4 years now.
Aye, but here’s the rub. It’s no good to make and horde money. At this point only a fool would focus his “wealth” into any sort of tertiary vehicle, gold included. (Maybe not a bad idea to have a little; but if that’s your only strategy…) What money we have goes to paying off the last of our debt, buying land, trees, and livestock, and implementing low-tech food and herbal medicine production systems. Things people will always need. And there are so many other needs people will be willing to pay for, too, just not the ones we’ve gotten used to. Think at horse-pace. It’s working for us.
Looking forward to meeting up with POC next week in northeast Georgia to talk business. See you cats soon as I can. Or at the state Georgia Organics conference the last weekend of February in Columbus. Sign up for my “Permaculture in the Deep South” lecture if you’re going. Peace, dear friends.
TT

Trip,
Good to hear from you. Well, you’re learning what we NYC-ites have known for a long time: There’s a real passion in the city for local farm raised foods.
If you ever travel up to NY, you should check out the Green Market. (several locations, several days a week.)
I’ve been buying a good deal of my produce and some meats since the late ’70’s. It always added a lot of vitality and quality to my lifestyle here in NY.
There are many restaurants that are locavore as well.

Re: BadIsntWisr – You are a fucking douche-bag troll, coming here week after week on Monday, only to insult JHK’s intellect/poast, and troll for replies. Well good luck with that (I won’t discuss your OWS tripe).
And it’s good to see all the sock-puppets out in force the last 2 days (Alexandra’s back in her freedom-yacht [begone, pir8’s] – Welles is back eating a 100% meat diet [chattle/swine], raised on concretized, chemically leached South American clearcuts/slash-and-burns, with hammocks, *friends* and free fruit everywhere [I wonder how close Soker lives to him?]). And most all of these sock-puppets are seriously hollering their k00ky agenda for Ron Paul.
I’ve seen lots of politicians promise things before the election, then deliver nothing. Obama did the same war promise horse-shit that Paul is doing (pull out of wars, shut down gitmo/torture, etc), only to ramp up the 2 wars, and enter 3 others in Yemen, Pakistan and Libya. I’m waiting for Soker to debunk the “Ron Paul is not corporate bought-and-owned.” The fact that these sock-puppets will believe Paul’s promises, rather than his *TRACK RECORD*, says scores.
These sock-puppets are merely disinformants/skeptibunkers/plants/trolls, just as I said last week. Their agenda is simple – flood bandwidth with sock-puppet banter, in order to convince brain-donors out there to align…

This collapse is not going to let us off the hook so easily. There is so much padding in the industrial economy — especially in the U.S. — that it will most likely be a long, drawn-out, catabolic collapse, gradually siphoning off the fossil-fueled affluence we think of as normal.
Fifty years from now the “wealthy” will be those who can still squeeze a piece of meat, or at least some fat, into their diet with some regularity; those who might have an electrical outlet remaining in service to that cause; those who live in a house that can maintain a temperature comfortable enough to really enjoy that piece of meat without getting up to stoke the fire; and those who can grab a hot shower afterwards before lying down in a soft bed.
In the beginning, chop wood and carry water. In the end, chop wood and carry water. In the meantime, that thyme-stuffed rabbit sure smells delicious…

Contrary to popular belief in the South, there are some sharp cats in New York! ;o) That’s awesome that you have had that alternative for so long in the big city. Most of the rest of us are just discovering it.
Happy New Year, mate.

Tripp,
Have you read Stoneleigh’s most recent piece over at The Automatic Earth:theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/
I wonder what your thoughts might be about centralization/regulation as it applies to locally grown organic food? Certainly, her concerns/assertion do not bode well for those in that particular biz.

Wow, I really feel sorry for you, you bible-thumpin’ tea-bagging idiot. Wage made the exact same point I was going to make. Did you not go back and find/re-read Asoka’s poast/bible quote, that you replied to, but apparently didn’t read?
Are you trying to claim Soker misquoted the bible? Or are you trying to claim the bible is wrong concerning prayer? Do you see how stupid you look now, and why I feel so sorry for you? You didn’t even *RECONCILE* the initial issue w/ Wage.
Let me help:
(Soker’s initial poast):kunstler.com/blog/2012/01/2012-forecast-bang-and-whimper.html#comment-98246
“SOURCE: Matthew 6:5-6
Jesus said: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.””
(Your illiterate/incomprehensible reply):kunstler.com/blog/2012/01/2012-forecast-bang-and-whimper.html#comment-98327
“Your quote from the Bible on public praying is correct, but you fail to note that it takes real balls to pray publicly today.”
THAT IS A BIBLE QUOTE – that is not Soker failing to “big-ball” your effrontery (C wut I did there?).
Bwahaha! Even I know what the response will be (anyone in there?)…

I have to admit, I’ve been agreeing with most of what Soker has to say about Ron Paul, except I think he went a bit too far with the following quackery:
“Ron Paul is so anti-Israel I wouldn’t be surprised that he would arm Iran with nuclear weapons if he thought Iran would use them to eliminate Israel.”
I also agree with his vote for the Green Party. I hate agreeing with the master debater so much, when he seems to flipper-flop more than most politicians, or fish-out-of-water…
I especially hate his sarcasm in every other poast, about the end of the world this Tuesday/Wednesday/etc…

LB … unfortunately, I think Goldman Sachs is showing us that “every dog has its day”. ECRI’s amazingly prescient indicators absolutely agree with the Chinese Finance Minister’s prediction for the global economy in 2012. The word he used was “grim”.
Goldman might actually be telling the truth … I know it’s a stretch to believe that but … 🙂 🙂
E.

Wow, back from the *dead*! Hehe. I hope that person on your blog, flaunting her BMW convertible and mcmansion with all the fixin’z, isn’t really an *ex* as she claimed (was that the same person who quit your blog, only to come back and spam blind materialism and self righteousness?)

Iran … who has PROVEN that they are working on deliverable nukes? Answer: No one. No UN Inspector. No Russian Inspector (and Russia lives close to the action and do NOT want nukes lobbed just south of Mount Elbrus).
We should not underestimate how CROOKED the United States is. After all, remember the false flag “bioweapon lab” that Colin Powell told the UN that Saddam had!!! NEVER FORGET!!!
E.

Happy New Year, Ozone. When I file taxes for 2011 I will have ZERO schedule D entries … in other words, no schedule D at all. The function of a secular bear market is to extract money from ALL participants … bulls and bears alike. Bears have gotten severely wounded since early 2010 and will give up at just the wrong time … meaning just about NOW. Bulls will get their head handed to them again just when everybody is exhorting you to buy every risk asset from here to Tipperary.
The masses NEVER learn when to be happy WITH WHAT THEY HAVE. Everyone still has a Las Vegas mentality. If the pension funds weren’t run by dimwits, they’d be exiting US equity markets in the near future before ECRI’s recession call, once again, looks prescient. We ARE a nation of grifters.
E.

LOL of the millenium:
“I agree that Obama is floundering, but he is the only one around at present with an ounce of intelligence. He well may grow some cajones, fire his staff, and hire some new people with better ideas.”
rIIIght – he’s gunna fire/re-appoint all his Goldman Sachs/JPMorgan/Citi/etc banksters/lobbyists on his staff!!! There’s a reason he kept a lot of these said-same crooks employed from the Bush neocon “occupation” (Bush wasn’t elected in either 2000 or 2004 [electronic voting fraud/SCOTUS party line vote])…

“When I file taxes for 2011 I will have ZERO schedule D entries”
No short term/long term cap gains? Would have been a good year to get out, if you’re *in*. However, if you’ve been *in* since about ’98 or so, you haven’t made JACK, most likely (break even best bet – prolly no need to file schedule D, except for excessive carryover losses).
Shoulda put it into dividend stocks – Cat, Micro$, etc. Bwahaha!!! Wonder how those iBonds will fare in the future (deflation book-cooking?)
My ass will have 10% penalties for partial 401k (IRA) withdrawals. Best decision I ever made! 401k is a farce, and the CD/Bond offerings were absolutely *PATHETIC*. The “auto-withdrawal 401k 10% max paycheck” thingy is what keeps the market alive – morons putting excess salary into the casino. All the while, leveraged to the hilt on their mortgage, car loan payments, and visa/mc/discover/AmEx maxed credit lines!!! (Earning 0% to -5% on the market, and paying 5% to 20% on their debts)

James, thank you for taking the time to do all the serious leg work it would take to know the real situations out there. I don’t have the time, know-how or energy, not to mention language skill, to have such an amazing array of geo-political knowledge. Yet it all seems to fit in the palm of your hand so easily.

No, I haven’t read Nicole’s latest piece of brilliance, but, lucky for me (as I see it anyway), I lean more on patterns than I do on details. And the pattern I see emerging is an already-overstretched bureaucracy burdened with ever-increasing hyper-complexity, coupled with a vastly underfunded (and steadily shrinking) budget, arrayed against a groundswell of commoners dedicated to, well, not dying in order to comply with the law.
These lackeys can’t hold the tide back (I used to be one of these lackeys, btw), I’m pretty sure, but, just in case, we are parking ourselves in the middle of a few different (and all pretty decent) markets, in separate counties (separate bioregions really), and, once we’re back at horse-pace, a big enough town in itself to make the entree work after the gravy’s gone. Between now and then, though, the “gravy” should just translate into more land and a greater variety of future food grown on-site, basically, for those preparing proactively. Retirement accounts that provide monthly “money” are gone. Check and mate. Oh, and we’re also trying to park ourselves next to one of the, ahem, five Amtrak passenger stations in Georgia.
But, to be honest, we are intentionally steering away from tightly controlled facets of local production. We make soap and herbal creams, grow fruit and mushrooms, and are toying around with producing pastured meats. We’ll see, I guess. But our bread doesn’t need to be buttered on the side that requires USDA approval, and that’s probably a good thing. I highly recommend this situation to others. Won’t matter one lick in the not-too-distant future, but until then…

Hey, man. Unfortunately, that commenter was indeed my ex. I met her when I was 24, and finally got rid of her at about 27, just before I got married to my sweetie, who will be celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary with me on Thursday. I honestly find that hard to believe! I was NEVER going to get married. And those 2 little towheads asleep upstairs are an even bigger mind-screw. She and I PROMISED we would never have children.
What a weird world.

“My ass will have 10% penalties for partial 401k (IRA) withdrawals. Best decision I ever made!”
Too true. In my opinion, and according to my take on what energy descent actually means ecologically, it doesn’t matter how much “interest” you’re making on your money these days. Once peak energy has been reached, and contraction has begun in earnest, you’re losing money unless you’re investing in land, proper shelter, food, and plant medicine. The rest of it is mostly an apparition. Just a daydream, gone as quickly as it arrived.

I was NEVER going to get married. And those 2 little towheads asleep upstairs are an even bigger mind-screw. She and I PROMISED we would never have children.

Do have free will or the illusion of free will? … Marriage is making a lifelong “choice” … We think it will last forever. Our divorce rate indicates otherwise. How much free will do we really have. As for having children: “The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.”

E wrote: “After all, remember the false flag “bioweapon lab” that Colin Powell told the UN that Saddam had!!! NEVER FORGET!!!”
What that the same Iraqi mobile “bioweapon lab” that sold those really good barbeque lamb gyros?

You say “I don’t think we have a definitive answer about the causes of the unstable weather that has been occurring” – oh, now I get it, it’s just “unstable weather”, not climate change at all. The conclusions of over 98% of the world’s climate scientists is definitive enough for me. But you have obviously decided to believe the less than 2% who disagree, so go ahead, keep your head stuck firmly in the sand.

Monitor different sites and channels and you will find that the Left has far more hatred than the Right. But they wont own it and in fact, project it onto the Right. Gabby Gifford had hardly hit the pavement before they were raving about her being shot by racists.
And yet they never cease to prate about civil dialogue. They are Mad. They have ruined dialogue in this country and are well on the way to ruining the country. And they worry about a Right Wing Evangelical Takeover even as we are moving towards a Socialist/Fascist Tyranny (as opposed to Fascism per se. Pure Socialism wouldn’t have Corporations as per the classic theory. And pure Fascism would honor the Traditions of this country)
America has always been very religious – it could have gone that way. But it didn’t and they refuse to admit it. More typical Leftist Behavior: they thrive best in Crisis. If none presents itslef, they make them up.

Tell us more about Nicole. I love drama. And I love when a good man is able to escape from the Medusas, Gorgons, and Sphinxes.
Don’t look at her face. Just look at her reflection in your shield – if you have to look at all.

Oh so now you’re a scholar of Christianity. Now see here Ix, the first rule of exegesis is that you can’t take one verse out of all context and ignore everything else – just so you can make a point. That’s called being a hack.
Christ taught in Synagogues. And he lead small preaching/prayer services – like the last supper. And huge public ones with many thousands. Public prayer has always been part of Christianity as it was of Judaism. Ok there Mr Ignorance?

“Unfortunately, that commenter was indeed my ex.”
That is too bad. She sounded very cold, and very rooted in self-absorption. Best you managed to break free from that. I was shocked when she started slamming you, stating that what you did was a, “great excuse to not get a real job”.
Trust-you-me, I unfriended an old ex, who still wanted to try and control me/our discussion, after 21 years of being separated (I remained single – she married/popped out a rat/divorced). There’s something about certain women like that – it’s all about the $money$/stuff for them. Mom is the same way (70 years old), but I digress…
Oh, and in the next few weeks, I will liquidate another 20% of my 401k (at the same 10% penalty). I’d liquidate it all, but I’m trying to minimize my tax debt. I need to look at investing in acreage around here – but I’d be lucky to get 1 acre of land within 30 miles, for $50k… My 1/5 acre lot, that I’ve owned for 21 years, is still appraised in the 6 figures (just the lot alone, not the structure[s] on it)…
OK this is funny – Rick Perry just made a joke about graduating in the top 10, out of his class of *13* (lucky lucky!!!)… I graduated in the top 10 of my high school class of 142 (should have been #1/2, but there was this senile history teacher, and an asshat French teacher when I had mono for 3 months – ask if you want to hear those stories). LOL, I’ll stick with my honors BS degree in EE from U of Illinois (2nd in the nation for EE at that time, to MIT – LOL @ Stanford/Berkeley).
I know, self stroking serves me *ILL*! Bwah! I got some serious compost piles going this year – some of which will get watered/mixed every month or so, until Spring. Thyme is da bomb – I’ll be doing hardcore lemon balm/spearmint/thyme/sage/rosemary teas next year. Maybe I’ll even hunt some of those neighborhood “tree rats” for protein (squirrels). The front yard is full of fruit trees that should be fruiting soon (1-3 years tops), along with grape vines, raspberry vines, and blueberry bushes that already fruit. And the side of the house is overgrown with thorny blackberry bushes that fruit bigtime every year. Barely enough to sustain me, but definitely enough to cut my food costs substantially…

“Oh so now you’re a scholar of Christianity. Now see here Ix”
Douche – Asoka quoted the bible, and Julette agreed but dissented, then offered no explanation *WHATSOEVER*. I said NOTHING about the k00kery of religion, which I believe is nothing but mysticism and complete nonsense…
But hey, go for it, sock-puppet!!! Do you really think I’m going to *also* buy into the apocryphal texts written by *WOMEN* – Eee ***GHADS*** We all know who and why, circa 300-400AD. You can take your thumper of a bible, and cram all its contradictions?!?

Helen, the nuclear family is the primary mode of disease transmission, responsible for creating a diseased society by transmitting racist values, homophobic values, patriotic “us/them” values (may actually end in child’s death on a battlefield), conspicuous consumption values, etc.
Children are not born with violent and anti-social attitudes toward others. Children are not born with a religion or a belief in an invisible god. Children are not born thinking their family, their nation, their skin color, etc. is superior to others. They are taught those values in the nuclear family.Hateful values and ignorance are inculcated through the nuclear family, transmitted from parents to children and guarantee the continuance of vicious cycles of hatred.
The sooner the nuclear family disappears the better.

Someone poasted this last week, and it hit a nerve:youtube.com/watch?v=7f0GStBCeUU
I remember poasting here, and elsewhere, years ago, claiming I tried my “minimal impact” bit, but now I was going to become a spectator, and watch it all come crumbling down around us all.
I sounds very simple in practice, and also according to Carlin (no emotional attachment). But it is impossible (detachment) – unless you’re one of those 2%/4% sociopaths. There is no separation between the individual *me* and the external *masses* that encompass/destroy this planet.
Sooner or later, conscience catches up with you. Then, it digs into your soul, slapping you in the face, for your minimal actions, that become swamped by the majority overconsumptive, overpollutive monsters that breed exponentially. Yet, those monsters are your *brothers*, apparently…

Vlad should listen to Carlin’s take on THE DECLINE OF THE WHITE RACE.youtube.com/watch?v=7f0GStBCeUU
It would be great if Vlad were capable of the detachment of which Carlin speaks. But I suspect Vlad’s reaction would just be to say that Carlin, too, is a traitor to the white race. Sigh.

Hello CF’d Nation,
I will restrain myself from speaking ’bout ex’s since; #1, space is limited and #2, I am committed to saving those comments for another commeseration blogsite.
Like many of you, today was my first day back at at the sawmill. Ahh, nothing better than the smell of fresh cut wood unless it’s the aroma of newly printed USD’s. Speaking of “newly printed” here’s an article from the Seattle Times you may find of interest concerning a recent FBI bust related to counterfeit cigerettes, Chinese “supernotes” and oh maybe a few rocket launchers and around a 1,000 AK-47’s. Looks like Wal-Mart was going to have one heck of a “yearend” or is it “endyear” sale… Funny thing is the FBI still sold the cigaretts. Who says government doesn’t work. Check this out:community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20050822&slug=websmuggle22
You know it’s only January 3rd and the world has already gone insane, or is it, gone more insane? More to come I’m sure, this party is just getting started…
For the past few days I’ve been wondering what would be the most appropriate musical selection to ring in the New Year. So after digging deep into my archives I think I found it. Excuse the dust, this piece is 27 years old but is as relevent as ever. After all, it is about “The Big Money” isn’t it. Enjoy!youtube.com/watch?v=-KqKMJmvk4s
Jim, anything you can do to push up the publish date of your next book would be a good idea, I’m not sure we’re going to make till late summer.

“Do you believe Obama will honor his declaration?”
Which one(s)? Pulling out of the wars, or pulling out of gitmo/torture?
I think 3 years track-record gives us both the answer *NO*. He promised – but once elected, neglected to deliver. In fact, he ramped up war *significantly*.
Let’s go with Ron Paul’s promises now? *REALLY*?!? R U seriously that naive?

Funny funny! I saw some story about how there were “roll-yer-own” cigarette dispensaries opening all around NY, but they got shut down. Ayup – not enough salt peter, wood pulp, chemical infused *NARCOTIC*. The shit was pure tobacco – can’t have that! Phillip Morris competition got to *GO*!!!
Haha, *ex* this, my man! You know you wanted to *ASK* – so *ASK*!!! Or *tell*!!! (Show me don’t tell me?)
I knew that youtube was Rush – the kings of rock – ever heard them in concert? They are one of the best – their concerts are very “milli vanilli” (exact copies of originals). I loved them in the old rose garden arena (shaped like a round speaker) – I hate them in the Washington State fairground boonies (poor sound, terrible traffic)…

He says the White Race is on the Decline. Well, it is. People who say otherwise are fools. So what then? He doesn’t say if it’s good or bad. You say it’s great and I say it’s terrible. I merely would point out that you would not say the same about your own Race. And any White who exalts at the end of his own Race is sick.
Some men have a special talent, destiny, and/or vocation to be spectators or to be above it all. Monks and Nuns certainly. So perhaps Carlin was a “secular monk”. I know he said other things too – had a good bit of wisdom about this world. Of course I must ask was he Jewish or Gentile? Jews don’t identify as White so if he was it was no stretch at all. This isn’t rheotorical – I really have no idea.

*** CHARLIEFOXTROT & BEANTOWNBILL ***
Thanks for the support. Candidate k-dog is alive and well but too busy to keep up with this weeks blog or to comment on JHK’s excellent article this week.
But fret not for I have not been barking up the wrong tree.
Far from it. A k-dog website for president is coming together but I am having to learn how to do it as I go along. Fortunately this dog is still learns new tricks just fine. However getting the nuts and bolts of a website working is more than a nights work as I have not done it before and I want it to look good.
I’ll still need a bit time to get some content on it before I launch it once it’s working but it’s going to happen.
So keep up the good work on the campaign. My silence this week is only a result of limited resources, that’s all. This will change as things progress and my resource base increases.
k-dog for president.

The way to provide the best outcome for the current generation is to ensure the health and viability of future generations.
SUSTAINABILITY is the key.

Adopted by the Green Party (June 2000)FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or “unmaking” all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
——————————-
Welcome to the party k-dog.
Why don’t you just support the Green Party and vote for Jill Stein?

Idealism ?
Money is simply FIGHT: Money is equivalent to fight, to struggle, to A against B, nothing more. Money is just the distribution of pain because man is conflictual, has to fight to define itself, needs to fight to exist and win, needs the conflict, the win or lose game. Hence there is no possible “common good” only pseudo-justifications (theories, ideology, morality, politics) for the winner to crush the loser. All men are equally trash, no one is better or deserves more no matter what, it is all just a game of changing the rules and making some win and some lose according to who is more capable to abide to the new rules, etc.
Since money is simply a proxy for fight, for distribution of pain (mostly pain, also pleasure, but pleasure is not nearly as distributed as pain since inflicting pain is more fun and satisfying, gives the “winners” a bigger “high”, etc.) then all the talk, debates, theories are totally in vain: no matter what, man will always be back at square one, fighting each other over all kinds of crap, organizing the “economy” according to ever changing rules and making some win and some lose, etc.
But this flies right in the face of the Technological Economy that distributes pleasure, free wealth automatically, structurally, contradicting all of our old ideologies and philosophies based on “You Have to Deserve It”, “Hard Work”, “Resources are Scarce” , etc. Since people just can’t accept the possibility to organize society distributing as much pleasure as possible through the Technological Economy and love to inflict pain, see pain inflicted, they justify other people’s pain through the tool of Money, Fake Hard Work (imposed only ideologically, not for necessity), chanting how everything is running out, everything is finishing like food and energy, “There is Not Enough, but especially There is Not Enough For Everybody (niggers and mexicans, etc.) etc. there are “too many people”, etc (of coure there are especially when everyone must fight everyone else through the proxy tool of money, through that so beloved inequality between people that everyone says to deny but deep inside everyone loves, loves to think that they are better and deserve more, just because, because man is a simple action – reaction, pure subjectivity, nothing else).
The Observer is Pure Subjectivity, nothing more, so stick engines in Man Brains and change its design, build thousands of trillions upon thousands of trillions of skyscrapers and rockets to mars and brand new Lincoln Continentals, and 1966 Oldsmobile Ninety Eights, etc.
Huge Public Private projects for the common good, to distribute wealth, not use money as a proxy and tool for fighting. And then where is all the “Prodcutivie Investment” going anyways ? Where are all the “investments” going ? Shouldn’t they be building High Speed Trains, Rockets to Mars, Skyscrapers, Infrastructure, Automatic Factories etc. ? Oh no, it is just numbers scribbled on paper making believe that it is real money and investment…(but the paper is just a proxy for power status, inequality, money used as a weapon, as a tool, a proxy for FIGHT).

Some corrections for your thesis:
Idealism ?
Money is simply FIGHT: Money is equivalent to fight, to struggle, to A against B, nothing more. Money is just the distribution of pain because man is conflictual, has to fight to define itself, needs to fight to exist and win, needs the conflict, the win or lose game. Hence there is no possible “common good” only pseudo-justifications (theories, ideology, morality, politics) for the winner to crush the loser. All men are equally trash, no one is better or deserves more no matter what, it is all just a game of changing the rules and making some win and some lose according to who is more capable to abide to the new rules, etc.
Since money is simply a proxy for fight, for distribution of pain (mostly pain, also pleasure, but pleasure is not nearly as distributed as pain since inflicting pain is more fun and satisfying, gives the “winners” a bigger “high”, etc.) then all the talk, debates, theories are totally in vain: no matter what, man will always be back at square one, fighting each other over all kinds of crap, organizing the “economy” according to ever changing rules and making some win and some lose, etc.
But this flies right in the face of the Technological Economy that distributes pleasure, free wealth automatically, structurally, contradicting all of our old ideologies and philosophies based on “You Have to Deserve It”, “Hard Work”, “Resources are Scarce” , etc. Since people just can’t accept the possibility to organize society distributing as much pleasure as possible through the Technological Economy and love to inflict pain, see pain inflicted, they justify other people’s pain through the tool of Money, Fake Hard Work (imposed only ideologically, not for necessity), chanting how everything is running out, everything is finishing like food and energy, “There is Not Enough, but especially There is Not Enough For Everybody (niggers and mexicans, etc.)” etc. there are “too many people”, etc (of course there are especially when everyone must fight everyone else through the proxy tool of money, through that so beloved inequality between people that everyone says to deny but deep inside everyone loves, loves to think that they are better and deserve more, just because, because man is a simple action – reaction, pure subjectivity, nothing else).
The Observer is Pure Subjectivity, nothing more, so stick engines in Man Brains and change its design, build thousands of trillions upon thousands of trillions of skyscrapers and rockets to mars and brand new Lincoln Continentals, and 1966 Oldsmobile Ninety Eights, etc.
Huge Public Private projects for the common good, to distribute wealth, not use money as a proxy and tool for fighting. And then where is all the “Prodcutivie Investment” going anyways ? Where are all the “investments” going ? Shouldn’t they be building High Speed Trains, Rockets to Mars, Skyscrapers, Infrastructure, Automatic Factories etc. ? Oh no, it is just numbers scribbled on paper making believe that it is real money and investment…(but the paper is just a proxy for power status, inequality, money used as a weapon, as a tool, a proxy for FIGHT).

Huge Public Private projects for the common good, to distribute wealth, not use money as a proxy and tool for fighting. And then where is all the “Prodcutive Investment” going anyways ? Where are all the “investments” going ? Shouldn’t they be building High Speed Trains, Rockets to Mars, Skyscrapers, Infrastructure, Automatic Factories etc. ? Oh no, it is just numbers scribbled on paper making believe that it is real money and investment…(but the paper is just a proxy for power status, inequality, money used as a weapon, as a tool, a proxy for FIGHT)
From:ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=177766

Huge Public Private projects for the common good, to distribute wealth, not use money as a proxy and tool for fighting. And then where is all the “Productive Investment” going anyways ? Where are all the “investments” going ? Shouldn’t they be building High Speed Trains, Rockets to Mars, Skyscrapers, Infrastructure, Automatic Factories etc. ? Oh no, it is just numbers scribbled on paper making believe that it is real money and investment…(but the paper is just a proxy for power status, inequality, money used as a weapon, as a tool, a proxy for FIGHT)
From:ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=177766

I believe that the practice of the signing statement was adopted by George Bush, Jr. The signing statement is meaningless as it is not part of the law. The Executive Branch enforces the law. The Executive Branch does not have power to make law.

we ll be happy to welcome the bitch (NOT an insult; just couldn t resist) to the pack- she seems to have some compatible views…i personally have been aware of and living as much as possible in the larger framework the sustainable lifestyle since the mid-seventies- predating 2000 by well, my whole life…k-dog, keep at it; you are after all our only real hope for a paradigm shift to the good

And bear in mind, most of the fights and who and how you win and lose, most of the wins and loses, most of the battles, most of the money as a fight is purely mental, psychological, abstract, social based, status based, very rarely does it hit on to real physical pain/pleasure, it is mostly spiritual, theoretical, therefore NOT REAL; FAKE; A MAKE BELIEVE. But since Man is the infinitely progammable machine, he “believes in it”, he buys it and suffers if the social environment doesn’t assign him as a “winner” through abstract “medals” (as in more cash, a bigger house, a Lincoln Continental, a BOSS title, a Commander, many Hot Young Chicks Available, you name it).
Hence, break away from this past, this stone age Ape Man Brain, design new circuits, mix new machines in Brains, make it wild and crazy, make Brains as large as Skyscrapers, combine Matter and Mass Energy to produce new Man Brains, Hence new Observers, Hence totally New Universes with totally new Laws of Physics, Hence totally new forms of Pure Extreme Subjectivity expressed.
Busty, build those thousands of trillions of brand new Lincoln Continentals and 1966 Oldsmobile Ninety Eights, We need thousands of trillions of new people to build all this stuff we need, kill nature, beat the living daylights out of that new religion called Nature, and give me my Scott Free Handouts, 800 dollars a month Free salary and Cheapo rent of 200 dollars a month for 3 bedroom house, you can do it, just do it Man.
First Gear, it’s all right, Second gear Hold on tight, third gear you’re out of sight…THE APE

“Not very interesting predictions this year, perhaps Mr. K is losing faith in his oracular powers.
I’ve a few predictions for 2012 of my own…
The star Betelgeuse will go supernova, temporarily relieving the earths energy shortage as solar energy output surges and people need less electric light. Everyone is happy for a while.
South Korea inexplicably goes back to the 13th century. North Korea takes advantage of the situation and invades it’s Southern neighbor and forces it into the mid-twentieth century.
The Republican Party fails to agree a candidate for the presidential election and opts to support Barak Obama as a “National Unity Candidate”.
In order to keep up a facade of democracy of course a scapegoat, loony, “third party” candidate is needed. Charlie Sheen is tricked into running.
The plan almost backfire as many americans, confusing fact with fiction believe that Charlie’s father Martin Sheen was actually quite a successful president in the past.
Obama salvages the election running on the slogan “Charlie’s not like Marty, who was never really president anyway.”
Sheen still manages to win Alaska, Iowa and North Dakota.”
HA-HA-HA!!! That has got to be the funniest thing posted here in a while. Deserved a second posting.
🙂

“I believe that the practice of the signing statement was adopted by George Bush, Jr. The signing statement is meaningless as it is not part of the law. The Executive Branch enforces the law. The Executive Branch does not have power to make law.”
Actually, they have been around for decades, but it took the Bush admin to really abuse them.
And they are NOT meaningless, or why do them in the first place, eh?
The whole point of the SS is on how the Exec interprets the ‘enforcement’ of the law.
For instance, the Bush admin added a SS that basically said that they were NOT going to enforce a law that they didn’t agree with.
With no enforcement, the law is pretty much meaningless. Eh?
And a Great Big Happy New Year to you Tripp!!!
🙂

Self-pitying Christians must ignore the ubiquitous evangelicals saturating the airwaves, the big box churches, the takeover of the military,and the prayers starting political and sports events, just to name a few, to claim that they are persecuted in their beliefs and behavior.
Is it idiocy or delusional thinking, (or more likely, both) that allows you to claim, against all evidence, that you cannot practice your religion?
No. You cry persecution because you cannot FORCE children in public schools to chant your ritual phrases, although nothing stops them from private prayer, or even voluntary religious groupings on school property.
While you wallow in your self-righteous blubbering self pity, let me tell you that it only inspires incredulity and ridicule among those with a functioning brain and an ability to observe US society without the mindless hatred that right wing Christianity fosters among its acolytes.

“I unfriended an old ex, who still wanted to try and control me/our discussion, after 21 years of being separated (I remained single – she married/popped out a rat/divorced).”
I think the term you’re looking for is “fuck trophy.” Hehehe, always liked that one.
In the fertility-building department I discovered some new resources this past year that were heretofore unknown to me. Now I’m bringing home 1000 lbs of BLACK composted cotton gin trash at least once a week, and a load or two a week of crushed pecan shells, too. Great carbon source, and my chickens sure do enjoy picking the bits of nut meat out of it when I dump some in their pen. The rust-colored mulch that remains makes their run look tidier too. Been getting some wonderful orange-yolked eggs out of them lately, between the nuts and the winter forage in the garden.
Sounds to me like you’ve already got it going on in your smaller yard. Hard to pick up and leave that kind of established fruit behind, although I certainly understand the desire to have more opportunities for self-reliance! And you can always take cuttings with you.

@ helen highwater
The insurance industry sure knows that climate change is for real…bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-27/insurers-profitability-plunges-on-catastrophes.html
And where it will hurt most is with failed crops, so reliable large quantity food production gets ever wobblier. Much like with energy, eating will get more and more expensive, those that can’t keep up get wither, get sick and fail.
@ the CFN’kollectiv
This is a useful take on why Iran might not go all out ‘gung-ho’ over there in the SOH…. see the part headed ‘Iran’s dilemma’etfdailynews.com/2012/01/03/oil-prices-should-investors-be-worried-about-the-iran-situation-uso-oih-…
But if it does so in retaliation…. you can bet the price of gas for your SUVs will be heading toward $5 per gallon. Fret not folks, we pay the equivalent of $9 bucks a gallon over here in the UK and no one gets shot/lynched for that… the cost is mainly tax – UK govt raises around £73bn from car drivers alone annually, cash-cow-cars is what it be’s! However those more marginalised Brits steal number plates and do gas station drive-aways without paying for fuel.
In Arizona tis not possible as you pay for gas pre filling…. and the pump stops at the exact paid amount, that retrofit here in Blighty will come me thinks…Western europeans have operated on the system of trust to date, (take pay after).
@ Vlad… oh dear… seems Romney whipped ol Ron’s arse down there in Iowa? Mr. Paul will have to do way better than that if he’s to take on the Corp/Wall St/Elite favourite mix-raced american man of the people… Barack O’Change toward status-quo bankster occupation as usual.
Cheerio y’all…

I can not recall who posted the link to the Sam Harris — Chris Hedges Truthdig debate. I appreciated it very much. Personally, I have read and listened to Hedges and relate to his perspective far more than Harris’. The following on the same theme was in my email this morning.
A RELIGION OF LIFE
Dr. C. D. Deshmukh
The intelligent handling of our individual and social
problems is hindered by the _materialism_ of our age.
Material progress is indeed a great asset to our
civilization; but it should not be allowed to make our
vision narrow. We need a drastic _revaluation of values_
and a complete _reorientation_ based upon the perception
of the eternal values.
The Great Ones have appeared in our midst to establish
human brotherhood and to reveal the Truth. Thus
Zoroaster and Krishna, Buddha, Christ and Mohammed did
all descend to give us their Teachings. Those, who were
ready, understood them. But most followers only built up
vast superstructures of religious organisations, which
emphasised dogmas, creeds and cults and a number of
ceremonies and miracles. In the midst of these
inessentials, the Truth, which the Founders brought,
came to be utterly neglected or monstrously perverted.
According to Meher Baba all this paraphernalia of the
“priest-ridden churches” is not only superficial but
positively misleading.
Ceremonies and rituals are non-essentials, because they
tend to become merely formal and are usually inspired by
the desire for Heaven or the fear of Hell. But Heaven
and Hell are really “states of mental peace and
torture;” and these states are dependent upon whether
our action is in accordance with or in defiance of the
Law of Karma. We do not want a religion of the other
world but a _Religion of Life_. What, therefore, really
matters in not a set of ceremonies or rituals, but the
_spirit of love and worship_.
In the same way, miracles are far less important than
the life of the spirit. Meher Baba does not attach any
importance to miracles. His real work is in “Spiritual
Healing”. Meher Baba regards all beliefs, dogmas and
cults as unnecessary. He has not come “to establish any
_cult, society or organization_, nor even to establish a
new religion.” He, however, _does not oppose_ any of the
existing historical religions, but wants to “revitalise”
them by bringing out the essence of true religion, which
is “to realise God within ourselves and in everything we
see and meet.” And the God which we must thus realise is
not to be sought _away from life_ but _in life itself_.
We must realise Him in the creative activities of Art
and Science, in Love and Beauty and in our attitude to
our fellowmen and to Nature. True spirituality is not
concerned with any part of life but with life in its
totality, in all its aspects.
>From MEHER BABA TAUGHT ME
notes distributed in limited edition in 1936

In the “for what it’s worth” department:
Last night I attended the Cirque Du Soleil, Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour. This was my fourth CDC show and I expected to witness the same high quality circus performances, combined with Cirque’s usual tasteful and captivating thematic artistry, as I had in past performances. What I was exposed to instead was a non-stop, cranium splitting, hyper-decibel multimedia assault, apparently geared to desensitizing the attendee from similar experiences, such as being in the center of an exploding artillery shell, or at ground zero during a terrorist attack.
I wish I could say their was some compensation for tolerating this deranged noise and light tsunami, but with the exception of a one legged dancer on crutches, it was strangely devoid of any real talent or interest. Choreography could best be described as chaotic, with so many dancers on stage at once, you felt like you were in the middle of a gigantic food processor of flying, gyrating human bodies. Oddly, a mime was chosen as the master of ceremonies for this bazaar fantastical brew. Costuming was occasionally interesting, but too often ghoulishly reminiscent of Halloween, or perhaps a KISS concert. Musical arrangements were often so poor, at times I had trouble recognizing the MJ songs from which they were derived.
Of course, all of my experience was from the first thirty minutes of the show, after which my wife and I left. I would have been grateful to have left earlier, but didn’t want to deprive my wife of the “experience”. However, when I saw her holding her ears, I figured it was time to go and she agreed. The highlight of the night for me was the blissful state I attained when exiting the venue.
This show is a sad tarnishing of the CDC brand, which I’m not sure I will ever trust again to provide quality entertainment.

For the future [coming ‘very shortly’ to a theater near you] it would be well to remember that there are those who will refuse to be regulated out of existence.
“…the wealth conveyors of the past are breaking down, meaning that the periphery that can be drawn upon is shrinking. As the periphery shrinks, the remaining region within the grip of power can expect to be squeezed harder and harder. ‘Twas ever thus. Rome did the same thing, squeezing the peasants for tithes until they abandoned their land and threw in their lot with the surrounding barbarians.” -Stoneleigh
Uh, why do you suppose that ATF agents hunting down illegal [untaxed] distilleries were/are called, “Revenue-ers”? (Accompanied by spitting on the ground.)theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-3-2012-storm-surge-of.html
Monopolies on food and water (and enforcement to maintain same) will not stand. It’s pretty easy to figure out why.
The occupation of bully-boy, brownshirt enforcer is attractive to even some of the “participantz” here, and may well be supported by perc’s from a crumbling and corrupted central state, but survival does not bend a knee to regulation/skimming (only a reasonable surplus can do that), and sometimes folks “never come back from Copperhead Road”. No amount of hubris can change that bottom-line equation.

Hey O
Talking about percolating ideas about revenge…
I read in the Economist mag (a December issue) that 1 in 3 homeless men in America is a military vet.
Hmmm… a large number of impoverished young men. Where have we seen this before? 1920s Germany?
Not saying that you’ll get a replay but who better to exact revenge than groups of young men with military training, fighting skills.
All they need is a capable, articulate, pissed off leader, preferably one within their own ranks of the impoverished/destitute.

From an earlier comment to Buck Stud: “And the pattern I see emerging is an already-overstretched bureaucracy burdened with ever-increasing hyper-complexity, coupled with a vastly underfunded (and steadily shrinking) budget, arrayed against a groundswell of commoners dedicated to, well, not dying in order to comply with the law.”
I have sort of an inside view of this particular pattern, and I will share it now to back up my previous statement.
My aunt is Assistant Dean of Agriculture at the University of Georgia, in charge of what’s known as the “B budget.” This is the public funding source for the state-wide cooperative extension service, and various other related projects. I attended a conference where she was a main speaker last spring, the Georgia Ag Forecast, and she admitted openly to having had to cut 24% of the B budget in the previous 18 months, since she took the job. She was proud that she hadn’t had to lay anyone off yet, only had to close the positions that were being retired from, (never to be refilled, of course), but now, less than 12 months later, they are beginning to close down entire county offices, consolidating their services with larger offices in larger communities. For example, closing down the Turner County extension office and combining their service load with the office here in Tift County, just to the south. These two counties make up one state congressional district, and will now function as one political unit in the extension arena as well. This activity is all under the umbrella of the USDA, which would be the policing authority for the food relocalization movement.
So the idea that these collapsing government structures would have the physical capability to police a rapidly growing number of small producers/farmers-marketeers, seems unlikely to me. Remember, when the asteroid hit 65 million years ago, it was the giants that perished, not the small and nimble.
Otherwise, I generally enjoy what Nicole Foss, aka Stoneleigh, has to say over at the Automatic Earth. Though I sure as heck wouldn’t want to live where she’s chosen to ride out TLE.

In order to keep up a facade of democracy of course a scapegoat, loony, “third party” candidate is needed. Charlie Sheen is tricked into running.
———————————
I agree, very funny. It’s getting hard to tell when JHK is serious, he’s gone so far off the rails. Nice bit of satire.

…the nuclear family is the primary mode of disease transmission, responsible for creating a diseased society by transmitting racist values…Asoka
So that’s where your diseased racist values come from.
…Children are not born thinking their family, their nation, their skin color, etc. is superior to others. They are taught those values in the nuclear family…Asoka
There are other social organizations besides the family. For example, you’re forgetting the influence of schools. But no matter. You’ve given us some insight as to your own upbringing.
So why don’t you tell us about your own mommy and daddy and what bad things they taught you Asoka. Get it off your chest.
I don’t know what kind of nasty, vicious craphole of a family/community/school you grew up in Asoka. But mine was as far from the stuff you describe as can be. My relatives and friends also grew up in decent families, communities and schools run by decent adults. None of the shit you describe.
The sooner the nuclear family disappears the better….Asoka
You get to speak for yourn own. Maybe the sooner your own nuclear family disappears the better. Don’t presume to think that they’re all alike or that everyone else’s was like yours.

What ho, Alexandra!
Have you ever seen the prediction, from insurance giant Munich Re I think, that at the present rate of annual increase, by 2060 the cost of recovery from natural disasters will exceed the gross domestic product of the entire world?
I would say that that predicted date marks a pretty solid endpoint for the industrial experiment. But then, anyone with a brain can extrapolate that the situation couldn’t possibly continue to that point without some radical changes unfolding en route. The breaking point will of course arrive much sooner.
Nice to hear from you.
Pip pip!

“The highlight of the night for me was the blissful state I attained when exiting the venue.”
-dale-
I wonder what The Buddha would think about this above statement, dale?
Seriously that’s some funny stuff! Write more of them. I generally carry ear plugs on overnight camping or motel trips with people unknown to me. Such ear plugs are to be distributed freely to those around me in the event of unplanned SNORING, chainsawing, or outbreaks of gunfire.
But you have put me on very good notice, dale. And now I shall carry earplugs 24/7 – in case I’m ever faced with mandatory reeducation at a CDC event, or some other such strange loudness.

Ya Oz, lately I’ve been wondering why moonshine opens you up to Federal law enforcent. ‘Revenuers’ were amongst the first federal police, way back in 1790. Ever hear of the Whiskey Rebellion? My neighbor, who is a mechanical genius, and I talked about brewing up some ethanol for fuel until we found out we needed a license from ATF.
Been reading a book about Aaron Burr. While Vice President he shot the Treasurey Secretary Alexander Hamilton(to death). After he left office he went out west and raised a private army to 1) take over Washington, kicking out Congress and depose President Jefferson, 2)Invade Mexico, Florida and New Orleans 3)Install himself as Emporer of a new Republic west of the Alleghenie mountains. His partner was the chief of staff of the USArmy, Wilkinson, who was also a paid spy for the Spanish King. Needless to say the plan failed. I mention this merely to point out it hasn’t always been smooth sailing here and we have a f—-g interesting history.
This morning when I got home from work turned on the TV and Daniel Yurgin was being interviewed on Book TV. He dismisses peak oil out of hand, saying Marion King Hubbert didn’t know about modern technology and fracking. He and the interviwer agreed on almost everything, mostly that there is plenty of oil available but a switch to renewables must be made for environmental reasons. He has great faith that natural gas, windmills and solar can replace petroleum and coal but it will take awhile.This is just the opposite of what Jim says in TLE, that oil is irreplaceable. Yergin seems to think that Oil and coal can be legislated and taxed out of use; made so expensive by the Govt. that we would be forced to use something else. Politically I don’t know if that is possible.
–WSP7

“people unknown to me.”
I should edit this to be, “people of unknown sleeping and snoring habits.”
Once men make it into their 30’s, snoring becomes loud and rampant, among a percentage large enough for trouble.
Women seem to come into snoring a decade later, but then women make up in volume what they lost in time.
I’m sure there is some important evolutionary component to all of this nocturnal noise.
You wouldn’t want a group of young raiders out in the wilds snoring and attracting attention. But a settled community filled with snoring males and females – what saber toothed tiger would attack a thing like that?

Ozone –
Thanks for the “Copperhead Road” youtube. I can’t ever listen to that thing without feeling the hair on the back of my neck rise a little bit.
That’s my peep’s he’s talking about in that song.
It doesn’t pay to rile us up without cause.
And you are absolutely correct, that that’s the direction we are heading, at least out in the countryside, where law enforcement will expire with a whimper. In the cities, I’d look for incrementally tighter surveillance and controls – until the whole thing collapses with a bang.

“He has great faith that natural gas, windmills and solar can replace petroleum and coal but it will take awhile.”
Hard to say about nat gas – it would require a monumental overhaul of our energy infrastructure (particularly our vehicles) at a time when the money required to cover the normal expenses of daily life is increasingly stretched. People are pretty unlikely to give up big chunks affluence in order to fund a transition like that. Not that it couldn’t happen somewhere outside of the United States. In a much smaller economy.
But in respect to the ability of wind and solar to replace fossil fuels, I think it’s safe to forget about that idea completely. I found John Michael Greer’s book “The Wealth of Nature” particularly instructive in this regard. The biggest problem lies in the industrial world’s fundamental misunderstanding of economic realities. Western economics doesn’t even recognize the primary economy of Nature as a factor in its calculations. When you consider that an estimated 75 cents of every dollar in the global economy is directly provided by nature, this is a pretty gross misunderstanding.
What modern economics DOES recognize is the secondary economy of manmade goods and services, and the tertiary economy of money for money’s sake. Both stock markets and precious metals belong in the tertiary economy. Western economics is primarily concerned with balancing the tertiary economy of money with the secondary economy of manmade goods and services so that inflation and deflation are kept to a minimum.
Oil is a primary good from Nature’s economy, and not just A primary good, but THE primary good, the keyhole resource by which all others are exploited. Solar panels and wind turbines are secondary goods, manmade and reliant not only on primary energy and primary goods for their manufacture, but on other secondary goods and services as well, like PV circuit boards, and a robust expanding economy.
The decline of primary energy curtails the production of secondary goods so completely that the idea of the latter replacing the former is nothing short of fantastical. Understanding that oil is the embodiment of half a billion years of ancient solar power, and that a PV panel, in full glory, is capable of harnessing only an instantaneous and fractional handful of photons hitting it at that moment, is key to understanding the importance of peak oil. The pundits really don’t seem to understand the physics of the situation.

In the book I mentioned, Greer also points out the problem of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in relation to energy exploitation. I’ll try to do his argument justice.
Since entropy always guides energy from higher concentration to lower, what matters most about energy exploitation, in any living system, is the gradient of that energy source in comparison to the ambient environment.
Greer gave as his example a cup of coffee, at about 140 degrees F, being consumed in a room at about 70 degrees. Because of the temperature difference, an energy gradient exists in the cup of coffee that clever engineering could harness to do a bit of work as that energy moves from higher concentration to lower, i.e. as it gives off its heat to the room and cools to some equilibrium temperature a fraction of a degree higher than that at which the room began before the hot cup of coffee entered the system. Let’s say that both room and coffee now rest at 70.02 degrees F. Obviously a larger volume of hot coffee would raise the temperature of the room more than 0.02 degrees, which is why we don’t pressure can tomato sauce in the kitchen in the heat of summer.
Now, at equilibrium the coffee has no further capacity to do work, as is evidenced by the way we tend to dump it down the drain when it reaches this point. Piping hot it warms and energizes our waking body and mind, but at room temp coffee is pretty useless. BUT, the coffee at 70.02 degrees F is still about 343 degrees hotter than absolute zero, -273 degrees F, the baseline of the Kelvin scale. If we could drop the temperature of the room to zero kelvin, that cup of coffee, now 343 degrees hotter than the room around it, would gain a pretty impressive capacity to do further work. The energy gradient would now be quite steep, in fact much, much steeper than it was in the original situation, and would contain a large capacity to do work.
The energy gradient represented in a gallon of oil is incredibly steep compared to the energy permeating the ambient environment around us. That is, in practical terms, the solar energy falling on Earth, and the wind, rain, and tide created by that solar energy, is actually nothing more than the ambient energy level that powers normal life on the planet – a normal life that doesn’t consider industrial machines in its calculus. In other words an energy gradient doesn’t really exist at all. All the incalculable photons of solar energy hitting the roofs of our houses every day, all that promising solar power, can pretty much be considered “room temperature.” And the entirety of our technostructure was designed to operate on an energy source of a much steeper gradient (coal and oil) than that of room temperature solar energy. To make solar energy run the machines built for coal and oil, it has to be collected and concentrated substantially. Achieving this is only feasible up to a very constrained point, much lower than the energy level at which our fossil fuel-based economy runs today.
The skinny according to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics? Solar power can effectively be used in the form in which it arrives: to heat houses passively through glass windows, to cook a pork roast in a solar oven, or to heat water for a relaxing shower. Converting solar heat to mechanical energy, or electricity, has a metabolic loss associated with it, as does any energy conversion, that renders that application pretty much useless. At least at any sort of scale.
Hope that makes sense, because it’s awfully important to understand the physics behind the situation.

Well, bless my soul.
I never really listened to the words of that song.
The only times I’ve heard it, I’ve been trying to learn the linedance from the other partiers. Some sort of irish jig, as I recall.
But that good ol’ boy sure looks familar.
Them’s my people too!

Thanks Tripp for your reply. I found the Nicole Foss article pretty chilling, especially as it relates to criminalizing seed banking and taxing gardens. On the other hand, why should anyone be surprised considering the repressive trends in most societies.

“Ozone –
Thanks for the “Copperhead Road” youtube. I can’t ever listen to that thing without feeling the hair on the back of my neck rise a little bit.
That’s my peep’s he’s talking about in that song.
It doesn’t pay to rile us up without cause.’
That whole Southern pride, tobacco road, “The South’s going to do it again” musical genre always struck me as the lubricant which enabled disenfranchised southern whites to vote for right wing candidates espousing economic policy diametrically opposed to their own best interest. In other words, a stupid pride tinged with an undertone of racism.
The below video on the other hand is truly representative of economic/class stratification in America above and beyond race. Raw, primal, authentic…ART!youtube.com/watch?v=sHE0wmgljco&feature=related

OZONE:
Say now, let’s apply the last of the objective criteria (which just happens to be “subjective” damnit). It’s all about correctly/incorrectly JUDGING what that distance might be, ain’t it? Nothing can be applied until that guess is properly made. Is that result knowledge or “best guess”?
==========================================
I think I see what you’re getting’ at. However, I’m one who thinks subjectivity and objectivity are reciprocal, though this process can be abandoned in favor of arrested development at any time, ergo freezing in a state of subjective experience. I’d also agree with you that intuition is used to make certain assessments about “Truthiness” yet is always connected to direct experiences of reality; guess is not a bad term, but a guess is just an estimation of what’s real; a beginning, not final result of knowledge. Guesses are tested through falsifiable experimentation. They are built upon, and if we’re lucky, we’ll never stop guessing about what’s real in life, for if we do stop, then life gets real boring, fast.
So what starts out as an assumption becomes a reliable foundation for knowledge — a theory — which one could humorously say was initially based on wild-ass guesses about strange phenomena i.e. why do big titties float?spike.com/video-clips/ue7wng/manswers-do-bigger-ones-float
Joking aside, when I was a kid, I guessed that my enormously fat babysitter would sink to the bottom of my uncles’ pool without hesitation. Imagine my wonderment when she and her gigantic breasts had an easier time swimming than me, even with my floaties on. I can’t recall how many times my uncle had to save me from drowning after I jumped back into the pool without my floatation devices, only to quickly remember that I hadn’t yet figured how to tread water and stay afloat on my own. Also, why my uncle laughed cynically when he noticed that Georgia’s huge breasts floated in front of the rest of her body would elude me for many years to come. Turns out my body mass and my mind were a little too dense, compared to Georgia’s. Anyhow, with experience, I developed an intuition for how to swim before I actually “knew” about it, based partly for noticing the way Georgia suddenly became more graceful in the water. She taught me to use my breath to help me stay afloat, which begged my question to her about whether there was air in her boobs. Ok, I was still fuckin’ around here, too.
Said more succinctly, without necessarily knowing the principles of buoyancy, all shipbuilders once only used wood to craft boats. Basic reality tests, i.e throwing junk into the water to see what floated, helped determine choice materials for sailing. No big theory here, just ordinary sense experience, best guesses if you will—subjectivity. Even though Archimedes discovered the principle of buoyancy sometime round 200 B.C., not many people knew/know the idea; thusly there is little difference between what most people “know” today about the real world and then; a lot of best guesses guide people’s decision making, just take a look at our political class. In this way, it’s easy to see that the word theory unfortunately has become a junk word used by common rhetors to give their bogus opinions clout. There are simply a lot of recycled beliefs and conventional opinions fronting as theories out there.
As to my pairing of social thinkers such as Hedges and Gingrinch, I only meant to show that people who look to others to characterize the world for them via historical anecdote will only ever judge the notions based on shared cohort opinions, not on a real assessment of underlying ideas and principles. People are rarely convinced to think in different ways based on facts alone; they must be given possession of a larger idea to be genuinely empowered. For every book laden with historical facts and figures produced by however well meaning guys like these, there’ll always be someone else who can write an antithetical, factual retort ad infinitum and beyond tedium that’s absent any useful ideas. Perhaps the teach a man to fish, or give him a fish adage is appropriate here.
To your earlier question: I’ll take a nuanced narrative of history told with voices that actually lived the circumstance over the bloated testimonies from assholes who describe history as though they were actually there, any day. Still I’m not sure of the utility of ANY of this work beyond sentimentality, which is a throwback to a lower level of human experience – emotions pertaining to what once happened. People conveniently dust off that trusty old moral platitude that not knowing history causes its repeat, which I think is wrong. Libraries are rich in tales of dead civilizations with which today’s opinion leaders are well familiar. And Are we not on the brink of yet another Empire’s collapse?
ABSALOM

Hey WSP, Don’t forget about Shay’s Rebellion in my neck of the woods after the “American War of Independence”
Things never change! Just a quote from the Wiki page:
“The financial situation leading to the rebellion included the problem that European war investors (among others) demanded payment in gold and silver; there was not enough specie in the states, including Massachusetts, to pay the debts; and throughout the state, wealthy urban businessmen were trying to squeeze whatever assets they could get out of rural smallholders. Since the smallholders did not have the gold that the creditors demanded, everything they had was confiscated, including their houses.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays'_Rebellion
Mass. has become a nanny state, hard to believe that we basically started this nation.